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Indian Forces Fend Off Attack at Airbase; Iraqi Forces Extending Control in Ramadi; More Rain and Snow to Hamper U.K. Flood Recovery; Obama to Announce New Executive Action on Guns; New Al- Shabaab Video Highlights U.S. Flaws; New Putin Security Strategy Considers NATO a Threat; Looking Ahead to Global Threats in 2016; Photographer Recalls Escape from Burning Hotel; China Ends Controversial One-Child Policy; Singer Natalie Cole Dies at 65; Astronomy As a Way of Life. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired January 02, 2016 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A deadly siege targeting India's military. Attackers storm an air base. A civilian and two security guards among the dead.
Tracking down a killer. Israeli police search every corner of Tel Aviv looking for a gunman who killed two people and injured many more on a bustling city street.
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HOWELL (voice-over): The words say it all: Natalie Cole. A timeless voice. We pay tribute to this legendary singer.
From CNN World Headquarters here in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm George Howell. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
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HOWELL: And a good day to you. We start this hour in Northwestern India. That is where security forces are fighting off a militant attack at an air force base near the Pakistani border. Four attackers have been killed, as well as a civilian and two security personnel.
A militant is holed in at a building at this point and no group has yet claimed responsibility. This attack comes about a week after India's prime minister met with his Pakistani counterpart to launch peace talks. That was the first time an Indian prime minister visited Pakistan in more than a decade.
There are fears this attack could undermine the diplomatic process.
Joining me now on the line from New Delhi is retired Brigadier Ramit Kanwal (ph). He is an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Brigadier, it is good to have you here to give us some context on
what's happening.
So at this point we understand that no one has claimed responsibility but can you explain to our viewers how this situation could play into the talks that were held last week between the leaders of Pakistan and India and their efforts to revive relations?
BRIGADIER RAMIT KANWAL (PH), CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Let me begin by saying that it looks like business as usual for terror center (INAUDIBLE) Pakistan, the proxy war goes on. It does not appear that the Pakistan army and the (INAUDIBLE) side (ph) are on board. The initiatives that the two prime ministers, Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif have taken a short while ago.
HOWELL: Let's talk about the location, sir, of this base, located in the Punjab region near the border of Pakistan.
Can you explain the strategic significance of this base?
KANWAL (PH): The air force base at Pathankhat (ph) is on the Ravi (ph) River that divides Indian Punjab from somewhere in Kashmir. Quite obviously these terrorists have come to the international bamri (ph) in (INAUDIBLE) Kashmir just north of the river a couple of days ago.
And they began their mischief yesterday by hijacking the car of a superintendent of police, killed one of the occupants in the car and then left it after a short while. This morning, they stepped over the outer boundary wall of the air force base and got inside the base.
Fortunately they were warded off from doing major damage with the MiG- 21 and the attack helicopters cordons were part.
HOWELL: I want to talk more about these efforts to revive relations. Other prime ministers of India made efforts to revive relations with Pakistan.
But could you just give us an understanding of why, when people see what happened here, why that will effect what we saw last week, which was a positive move forward?
KANWAL (PH): Prime Minister Modi staked his political future on these talks by stopping over, as some people said, parachuting into Lahore on the way back from Kabul to New Delhi a week ago. And as has been expected, widely anticipated by all analysts, there have been yet another terror strike on Indian soil.
Every time India extends its hand of friendship, something goes wrong on the other side. That's why it leads me to the conclusion that I began with, that terror center is going strong. The proxy war is on and the Pakistan army and the ISI do not appear to be on board the friendship that the two prime ministers are trying to forge.
HOWELL: Ramit Kanwal (ph) joining us over the line, Ramit (ph), thank you so much for your insight on what's happening there.
KANWAL (PH): Thank you.
HOWELL: Sir, thank you.
Let's turn now to Saudi Arabia. That is where a prominent Shiite clerk Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr is among 47 people who have been executed. Saudi officials say --
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HOWELL: -- the executed men believed in extremist ideology and that they were members of terror groups. They were convicted of plotting and carrying out attacks against civilians, including an attack on the U.S. consulate in Jeddah in 2004.
Reports say Lebanon's supreme Islamic Shiite council and Yemen's Houthi movement are among those who quickly condemned the executions there.
There is a massive manhunt underway in Tel Aviv. Police are searching for a gunman who killed two people and wounded seven others outside of a pub. It happened Friday afternoon on a popular street in that coastal city. Police believe the gunman used an automatic weapon and fired more than 15 rounds.
Micky Rosenfeld, he is Israel police foreign press spokesman, spoke to CNN earlier and described how they are trying to catch him.
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MICKY ROSENFELD, POLICE SPOKESPERSON: As far as we can concerned, we're not taking any chances whatsoever. As far as we know the man is still armed. As far as we know, he's hiding somewhere in the Tel Aviv area. We also set up roadblocks around the city of Tel Aviv (INAUDIBLE) to prevent him from leaving or the possibility of him leaving the Tel Aviv area and to another area across the country.
There was heightened security over the last 24-48 hours for the New Year's celebrations, which went through and passed quietly without any incidents whatsoever but unfortunately mastered this afternoon's attack, where there was no specific intelligence and warnings. Are continuing -- and due to continuing to work right now as we're speaking in tabid (ph) area.
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HOWELL: Let's go live to Jerusalem. Ian Lee following this story for us.
Ian, good to have you this hour. So you know, police have been combing Tel Aviv, looking for this gunman.
But apart from what we saw there, we know that he has been seen in surveillance video.
Are there any new leads here?
IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, he's been seen in the surveillance video and that's what the police have been using to determine, George, which way he went, although they're searching all over Tel Aviv for him, going house to house, street by street, looking for the suspect who is still thought much considered very dangerous.
But right now we talked to the police this morning for updates. They aren't saying anything new. There has been a gag order put in place that prohibits journalists from reporting any new details of the investigation. These have been put in place in the past sometimes to prevent the person who is on the run from learning any of the movements of the police.
But there is this -- still this massive manhunt underway.
Despite that, though, people have been encouraged to go about their daily lives but to be a bit more cautious.
HOWELL: And on that point, Ian, so you know there are always greater concerns that this could be something bigger, something connected to terrorism, so, again, officials are telling people just to go on about their way.
LEE: That's right. Right now the police have yet to say whether this is a criminal case or if this is a terrorism case although we heard from the Israeli police spokesman saying that they're leaning towards it being a terrorism case although they're not sure yet.
But, right, they're telling people in the Tel Aviv area to go about their daily lives. Yesterday, last night, the beginning of the Sabbath, they had extra security at the synagogues for people who are praying. But there's also people -- this is the weekend -- going out to restaurants. Going out to bars, enjoying night life.
And so, you know, yesterday we heard from witnesses, saying that the bad weather has kept people away. The weather, as you can see behind me, hasn't improved, likely to keep people away.
Other people have said that they're scared to go outside and go about while this man is still on the loose. But the police still saying, you know, it's fine. You can go out. Just be a little bit more cautious. Keep alert.
HOWELL: And, Ian, officials even pointing out that that weather you're talking about, the cold temperatures, made -- it could have, you know, the fact that people stayed away, that there weren't as many people out and could -- the situation could have been worse.
CNN correspondent Ian Lee live for us in Jerusalem.
Ian, thank you so much for your reporting there.
We move on now to Iraq and the fight for Ramadi. Government forces there, they say that they are working to free roughly a thousand people trapped in the eastern part of that city. We're also trying to find any -- they're also, I should say, finding any remaining militants. The Iraqi government says it drove ISIS out of the heart of Ramadi on Monday, declaring it liberated.
Ramadi fell to the terror group back in May and Iraqi forces have been fighting to reclaim that key city for more than a week.
Let's go live to Baghdad. Nima Elbagir is there with the latest.
Nima, good to have you with us. So let's talk about the fighting there. It continues. ISIS still holding out in the outskirts of the city, reportedly even staging that attack on a nearby base.
What more can you tell us about the situation?
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NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is what the Iraqi government is characterizing as an ongoing purge, they say, of the areas in which ISIS continues to have a presence. But the sense we're getting is that that fighting is intensifying.
Yesterday evening a complex attack on the outskirts of Ramadi, hitting the 10th Division headquarters. Multiple suicide car bombs. They were pushed back with what Iraqi government officials are saying was limited exposure but it is the reality that ISIS are still fighting in a city that the Iraqi government has said is now liberated.
It gives you a sense of how difficult it is when what you're essentially dealing with is street-by-street fighting. And this is what we heard repeatedly from the Iraqi forces. This is not conventional warfare and it is complicated by that reality of these narrow avenues in which this fighting is continuing and ISIS is proving -- helped, we're hearing, by the weather, preventing a lot of that ongoing air cover, those intense airstrikes which have been so crucial in this fight, not just for Ramadi but other areas in Iraq.
The weather here has hampered that ongoing air cover and we're seeing ISIS trying to push that advantage now -- George.
HOWELL: You know, Nima, as these efforts continue to rescue people from the militants' control, we're hearing some harrowing stories about what they experienced, what they saw and how they managed to survive it all.
What all have you heard?
What all have you seen?
ELBAGIR: We traveled to the refugee camp about half an hour from Ramadi where a lot of those families that are being extracted by the Iraqi counterterror forces are being brought back to.
And it was really heartbreaking, George. They have been through so much and they're dealing with the reality that that city, their homes are essentially now desolated. What the airstrikes and the ground offensive didn't destroy was blown up by ISIS. One 70-year-old woman who was in a wheelchair said that if her neighbors hadn't physically helped carry her out of those areas where so much of that fighting was going on, she doesn't think she would have survived.
Another lady spoke about her husband being threatened at swordpoint by ISIS when he tried to stop them from taking his family to the east of the city, where those human shields are being moved to. ISIS is using so many of those remaining civilians to block the ongoing offensive that's coming in from the east, to slow that ongoing offensive.
Her husband survived that. He managed to escape ISIS and rescue them from being amongst those still remain in those eastern districts. But now he is amidst the many young men and husbands and fathers who the Iraqi government feels has to go through this process of questioning. It is -- it is just really heartbreaking. I don't think there's any other word for it -- George.
HOWELL: Nima, you talk about the situation in that tense city, a situation with mostly women and children. And as you explain many of the men being questioned.
But what is the sense that you get from people, now that they have been rescued from the militants' control, the sense of them reclaiming some control of their own lives?
ELBAGIR: This is really the way in which Ramadi is almost being set up as a blueprint for what potentially could happen in these other territories that they're hoping to regain from ISIS, whether it's Mosul or Fallujah, and that is using the local Sunni tribes to hold this territory and therefore giving a lot of these families a sense of security, a sense that they have a buy-in to the securing of their territories, to the holding of their homes.
And that's the hope that the Iraqi government have in Ramadi, that using the local population, using the local tribal forces will give these families a sense of confidence that will allow them eventually to feel that they are able to return to their homes.
HOWELL: Our senior international correspondent Nima Elbagir, live for us in Baghdad, Nima, thank you so much for your reporting and context on what's happening there.
You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. And still ahead, authorities in the U.S. state of Illinois, they are on edge as the death toll and the floodwaters continue to rise. We'll have the latest for you.
Plus the U.S. President Barack Obama, he is expected to announce new executive action on the issue of gun control. We'll tell you about his plan when he comes back.
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HOWELL: Some bad news for parts of the United Kingdom. More rain on is the way for an area already dealing with unprecedented flooding. Warnings remain in place across that country and the threat of ice and snow could hamper cleanup areas.
In some areas what would normally be a month's worth of rain fell in just one day. The U.K.'s Environment Agency said more than 7,000 homes have been flooded in the last week.
And flooding also the story in the United States, where the death toll is rising from severe flooding in the Midwest. Nine people have been killed in the state of Illinois and, in Missouri, at least 15 people lost their lives.
People in the southernmost tip of Illinois are watching the levees very closely as authorities go door to door, asking people to evacuate. One levee has already been breached; 12 counties been declared disaster areas, with the governor calling in the National Guard.
Flooding, the big story in the Midwest and in the U.K. Let's turn to our meteorologist, Karen Maginnis, who is following the situation -- Karen.
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, right now we have about 9 million people who are under some sort of flood advisory, watch or warning. But there are 16 states where the rivers are at or just above or well above flood stage. They include areas such as Louisiana, extending over toward the Carolinas and into the Lower Great Lakes.
But it is the mighty Mississippi, the Big Muddy, that is going to see the problems. Not just in St. Louis, where they're not going to see any more rainfall but they will see the fallout from all of that rain that fell between December 26th and the 28th, about 10 to 12 inches in some cases.
And the Merrimac River, which was well out of its banks and established the new record high for that particular river. But now we're looking at downstream all the way into Louisiana, where we will expect in the next several weeks that all of that rainfall that has accumulated across these basins flows towards the South.
It is these major river basins, the Missouri, the Mississippi, the Arkansas and the Ohio River that have really been hit the hardest over the last several days.
And here you can see what the latest river level is on the Mississippi River at St. Louis. It was not a record-setting event -- that would still be back in 1993. But nonetheless, top three events.
Now we're watching Cape Girardeau, which will crest at approximately 50 feet over the next day or so. Right now we're looking at it well over its flood levels and the people here who have lost everything in these devastating floods, the temperatures are exceptionally cold, only around the low 30s.
And across United Kingdom, back-to-back storm systems once again pounding this area. We will expect gale force winds as well, all the way from the Highlands of Scotland --
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MAGINNIS: -- down across north central sections of the U.K.
Back to you, George.
HOWELL: Karen, thank you.
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HOWELL: So the New Year's Eve fireworks are barely over but the fireworks for the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, they are well underway. Some of the candidates took a break over the holiday but others, like Donald Trump, they kept up the political attacks on social media. CNN Chris Frates has a look at what's ahead for these presidential hopefuls as the race gets serious.
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DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to have a great time next year. It's going to be an amazing year. We're going to make America great again and we're going to do everything in our power to make sure that happens.
CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump has been off the campaign trail the last few days but that hasn't stopped him from going after his rivals on Twitter.
"I would feel sorry for Jeb Bush in how badly he is doing with his campaign other than for the fact, he took millions of dollars of hit ads on me."
Hoping to regain some mojo in the New Year, Jeb Bush changed things up this week, cancelling ad buys in Iowa and South Carolina and moving dozens of staffers to key early states to try to cut into Trumpmentum.
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JEB BUSH, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's not a serious candidate. He has a broad appeal but it may not be as deep as people imagine. So, we're going to put together a ground game, if you will, in Iowa and New Hampshire and here in South Carolina that I think will be second to none. And that's how we will do -- we'll win and we're going to do well, so I'm excited about it.
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FRATES (voice-over): Trump leads by wide margins in national polls, but his lead in Iowa is more disputed. With the Iowa caucuses less than a month away, Ted Cruz is gaining on the billionaire.
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FRATES (voice-over): The Republican senator is up with an ad there, selling his conservative credentials and he starts a six-day Iowa bus tour on Monday. To help blunt Cruz's rise and stay on top, Trump says he'll soon start spending at least $2 million a week on his own advertising.
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TRUMP: Well, I'm going to be doing big ads in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and they're going to be very substantial. And I think they're very well done. I've seen the first two or three of them. We're very proud of them.
And we're going to be talking about a lot of things, including the border, including trade, including ISIS and security for the country.
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FRATES (voice-over): And Ben Carson rang in the New Year with a new cast of cast of advisers, as the three top aides resigned on New Year's Eve. The struggling contender promised to reinvigorate his campaign ahead of Iowa's February 1st caucuses.
FRATES: Democrats are also getting back on the campaign trail. Bernie Sanders is in Massachusetts today. And over the next two days, New Hampshire gets a double dose of Clinton.
On Sunday, Hillary Clinton makes several stops in the Granite State. And, on Monday, former President Bill Clinton makes his first solo appearance of the campaign on his wife's behalf -- Chris Frates, CNN, Washington.
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HOWELL: The current U.S. president, Barack Obama, is set to announce new executive action to expand gun control. On Monday, Mr. Obama will meet with his attorney general to discuss available options. Sources at the White House say his plans will increase background checks on people purchasing guns.
Obama's announcement is expected in the coming days, just in time for his State of the Union address that is set for January 12th.
Earlier my colleague, Jon Mann, spoke to Robert Spitzer. He is a professor at the State University in New York at Cortland and he asked how effective the president's executive action might be. Listen.
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ROBERT SPITZER, STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK/CORTLAND: The chief question is whether it can help in keeping guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them in the first place.
Obviously, if there's no background check, there's no opportunity to find out if a person is a felon or is judgmentally incompetent or has other characteristics that most people would agree should cause a person not to have a gun. So to the extent that it affects that kind of transfer activity, it certainly would be useful.
JONATHAN MANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Now, useful or not, It's going to be introduced by executive order, which is to say it's the president's signature that will make it law and it would be another president's prerogative to repeal it.
How likely is it that this will not last longer than the year that the president has in office?
SPITZER: Well, it depends on who succeeds the president. But even when presidents of a different political party take office after and election, most executive orders from the previous president generally tend to stay in place. It's not the case that presidents tend to go whole hog and overturn most of the executive orders of their predecessors, regardless of political party.
However, on this issue, if we -- if the country elects a Republican president, there will be considerable pressure on that president to alter or amend or repeal these executive orders, at least pertaining to firearms and other things, too.
MANN: Now the president's opponents aren't just criticizing the result he has in mind; they are criticizing the process, which, once again, is -- it's unilateral. It's his pen. It's going to be his executive --
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MANN: -- order.
How hard has the president tried to get measures like this through Congress?
He said he wanted to use all the powers of the presidency to try to enact gun reform.
How hard has he tried?
And why hasn't he been more successful?
SPITZER: Well, there's two parts to that story.
Part one is Obama's first term, when the gun issue was pushed to the side. Even pro-gun control organizations gave him a failing grade for his political activities on the gun issue.
But after his election in 2012, within a month came the terrible shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School and, at that moment, Obama decided he was going to act on the gun issue.
And he really did bring all of his powers to bear on Congress to try and get it to enact stronger gun measures in the spring of 2013. And votes were held on the floor of the Senate, where the measures failed and the House of Representatives did not take them up. So in his second term, he has, I think, given the issue much more
priority, much higher priority, both in terms of trying to get something through Congress and, of course, not succeeding, but also to bring his rhetorical abilities to bear, to try and engage in some bully pulpit banging, so to speak, some agenda setting and also to act through executive orders and other executive unilateral actions, several of which he did in 2013.
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HOWELL: That was Robert Spitzer, speaking earlier with CNN's Jon Mann.
You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. And still to come this hour, the Russian president Vladimir Putin is calling NATO a threat to his country. And now Mr. Putin is putting it in writing. The story ahead, live from Atlanta, broadcasting around the globe this hour, you're watching CNN worldwide.
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HOWELL: A warm welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, good to have you with us. I'm George Howell. The headlines we're following for you this hour:
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HOWELL: The terror group Al-Shabaab has released a new recruitment video that warns Muslims in America about racism and discrimination. The video features messages from the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, the Al Qaeda leader who was killed back in 2011.
The video also highlights U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump and his call for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.
The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, says that NATO has become a threat to his country. Mr. Putin signed an executive order on Thursday, formalizing Russia's stance toward that alliance. CNN senior international correspondent Matthew Chance has the very latest.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this isn't necessarily a changing strategy but it's making formal what Russian officials have really been spelling out for years, which is that NATO and the expansion of the military alliance is seen very much here as a threat to Russia's national security. Russia and the West have been at odds over NATO expansion for several
years. It was the prospect of Ukraine being absorbed into the alliance that was one of the reasons that Russia annexed Crimea back in 2014 when it got an important naval base on the Black Sea.
At the new national security paper, which is updated every six years in Russia by law, says that Russia's independent and domestic foreign policy have triggered what it calls a counteraction on the part of the United States and its allies.
Well, the paper is only the latest in a series of Russian statements that put Moscow and NATO at loggerheads. Back in 2014, Russia updated its formal military doctrine, its official preparations to defend Russia with its weapons, to take into account NATO's growing presence in Europe.
At the time, Russian defense officials said that NATO's enlargement meant the alliance was getting closer to Russia's borders and presented an external threat to the country. It's still the case apparently that that is what's believed is still true here in Russia -- Matthew Chance, CNN, Moscow.
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HOWELL: And when it comes to Russia's influence and actions, all were major talking points in 2015, especially when it comes to Syria and that is likely to continue. Several of our CNN senior international correspondents sat down to take a look at what they think 2016 will bring.
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IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're seeing the collapse of Arab states basically, one after another. And God knows which country may be next.
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I hope I'm wrong, but I think it's going to get worse. And I really, really, really don't want to be right about this.
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NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: In terms of the next phase in ISIS' evolution, are you looking towards Libya?
Do you think that that's where the push is going to be?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't know. I don't know. I think we're going to see a lot of changes in Syria and Iraq possibly, possibly ones that have unintended consequences.
I think we're going to see many problems in Afghanistan, too, and ISIS are a very attractive brand to a lot of very poor and angry young men there.
And I think, yes, Libya will be a problem.
But I think also the West have slightly got their heads around Libya.
DAMON: I think it's going to get a lot worse in the sense of kind of what you're talking about. You know, it is going to change but it's still going to be there and that fear that they're able to create and --
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DAMON: -- generate is going to be there.
And let's not forget, in all of this, I mean, the Assad regime also and what they're doing to the population and how those actions and the fact that people feel so abandoned by the West that failed to come in and save them, when it comes to dying at the hands of Assad, that's what drove so many of them into the -- I mean, how many activists do we all know who right now are either dead, fled or they have become radical?
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ELBAGIR: Or disappeared.
WATSON: And let's not forget that you have just a mind-boggling number of foreign militaries, all flying and backing different proxies with completely contradictory strategic goals.
CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's incoherent international meddling --
ELBAGIR: But I think now there is a consensus forming around the need to actually move.
You know?
WARD: But I also think everyone has a different idea about how to bring down ISIS. The Russians think that bombing the Turks --
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WATSON: The Russians and the Iranians are supporting the Assad regime. The --
WALSH: But ISIS is a nice lightning rod for what is a huge conflagration in the whole region, that there is a need for the region to take ownership of the problem and fix it themselves.
Even if ISIS is somehow defeated, that doesn't fix the problem of the Saudis and the Iranians being octogenarians, running a youthful population with diminishing returns.
(CROSSTALK)
WARD: But that's what it comes to, right?
Ultimately, Saudi Arabia and Iran need to like be locked in a room together.
ELBAGIR: At the time same, while we're all kind of hopeful that there will be some consensus moving toward solving the presence in Iraq, you have an ISIS presence growing in Yemen, because we're all ignoring the reality of the Saudi Arabian bombings --
(CROSSTALK)
WARD: -- but I really believe it's possible that we are seeing a seismic, tectonic shift within the Middle East and, then over the next few decades, you're going to see a lot of these borders rewritten. And they were artificially designated borders anyway.
DAMON: The way governments were set up and the way boundaries were drawn was unsustainable. They were never going to last. But it didn't have to be this violent.
ELBAGIR: This mythology that we can protect ourselves, that we can close borders, that we can close doors, with the Ebola crisis last year, with the refugee -- with the Syria crisis washing up on Europe's shores, and I think Europe essentially knows that it is existential to get its house in order this year.
DAMON: I don't think we are mature enough to actually make the right decisions. I don't. I'm -- I have, really sadly, lost a lot of faith in humanity.
ELBAGIR: You say that, but I know that each single one of us has a story from the field, where we have been completely overwhelmed by the kindness and the extraordinary generosity of people in the worst possible situations.
And I think that's what I hold onto.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: They cover the stories in the field for us but also see so many things and can bring us some pretty remarkable context, our CNN correspondents.
You're watching CNN NEWSROOM and, still ahead, pretty remarkable details about a man who escaped a hotel fire in Dubai on New Year's Eve. We'll have the story for you ahead.
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HOWELL: It has been nearly two days now since a massive fire broke out at a luxury hotel in Dubai and investigators there are still trying to figure out exactly how it might have started. At least 16 people were injured in the New Year's Eve incident and the
flames spread that day. This photographer, he was trapped on a balcony on the 48th floor. CNN's Jon Jensen has his remarkable story.
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DENNIS MAILARI (PH), PHOTOGRAPHER: And this stay where my locations.
JON JENSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: New Year's Eve is one night Dennis Mailari (ph) will never forget. The 37-year-old photographer was on assignment to take pictures of Dubai's fireworks display at the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.
But at 9:30 pm his vantage point inside the nearby Address Hotel went up in flames. And Mailari (ph), trapped, scared and alone, had to fight to make it out alive.
MAILARI: I'm on the side of the building. I need help.
I got there inside to try to go exit. I'm not going to die because of the fire, because of the smoke.
JENSEN (voice-over): He was stuck on a balcony on the 48th floor. Great for photos but smoke quickly filled the building and escape wasn't an option.
MAILARI (PH): This is my view at the 14th floor.
JENSEN (voice-over): The Filipino expat first panicked, then sent desperate pleas for help to friends and family on Facebook.
MAILARI (PH): I need help.
Yes, already posted that I'm here at 48th floors, help.
JENSEN (voice-over): He also kept filming, stayed calm, especially when things looked the worse.
MAILARI (PH): We were at the 48th floor, Address Hotel, happening right now.
I can hear it and I saw some debris falling down from the building.
JENSEN (voice-over): After almost two hours, Mailari (ph) came up with a last-ditch plan.
He'd rappelled down the building on a window washer's cable even though it wasn't quite long enough to make it.
MAILARI (PH): I prayed that, if this is my last chance, then so be it.
JENSEN (voice-over): As he started going over the edge, firefighters found him and saved his life.
MAILARI (PH): You have to pull me back. I have a belt. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
MAILARI (PH): I have support belt.
JENSEN (voice-over): After walking down all 48 floors, Mailari (ph) was treated were smoke inhalation. He let his friends know he was safe, posting this picture. Then he continued with work, capturing Dubai's fireworks just meters away from the building that nearly killed him -- Jon Jensen, CNN, Dubai.
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HOWELL: Wow, what a remarkable story.
On to China now, workers are trying to rescue 17 miners trapped inside a mine and they may have hit a roadblock. Reports say during a drilling expedition a well collapsed and it flooded part of the mine, now narrowing the living space of the four men who are trapped inside.
One rescue expert says the collapse shows just how difficult this operation is, given that the rescuers are dealing with unstable conditions. The mine collapsed on Christmas, leaving one person dead.
The new year brings with it the start of a new era in China. Couples there will now be allowed to have two children as Beijing ends its controversial one-child policy.
Until now, families faced fines and often heartache if they tried to have more than one baby. CNN's Kristie Lu Stout explains how the one- child policy came into place and why it's now being scrapped.
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KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The one-child policy has been in place for the last 30 years. It started in the late 1970s --
[05:45:00]
STOUT (voice-over): -- when China was grappling with major population density as well as a backward, underdeveloped economy. In 2013, the policy was relaxed when China announced that certain couples, in which one member is an only child, would be allowed to have two children.
But fast forward to now. We have the introduction of a new policy: one couple, two children. This is the new population control policy for China.
So how was it enforced?
Well, the one-child policy has been enforced through propaganda, fines and also through force. Now couples have been fined thousands of dollars for having an extra child. And there's also been many just heartbreaking and horrific reports of forced abortions and sterilizations. In fact, it was the blind activist Chen Guangcheng, who made headlines
10 years ago for exposing these forced family planning campaigns in China.
And why is it ending?
Why is China scrapping the one-child policy?
It's because of the economy. China's demographics have changed. It has become an aging population. That means a graying workforce. So what China is trying to achieve now is to have a younger and more revitalized and productive workforce.
And how big a deal is it that it's finally ending?
Well, China watchers have been expecting this for a while but without a doubt this is a major change for the world's most populous country. But many questions remain about the end of this policy.
One question, will urban couples choose to have two children?
The cost of living is very high in Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai and many couples may choose to opt out of having a second child.
And another key question here, will it finally end the gender imbalance in China?
China is a country where men outnumber women by some 34 million.
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HOWELL: Kristie Lu Stout reporting for us.
Natalie Cole, the singer with the magical voice, she has passed away. We look back at her legacy and the challenges that she publicly and very bravely faced in life. Stay with us.
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[05:50:00]
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HOWELL (voice-over): One of the greats has passed on. Fans are mourning the death of singer Natalie Cole. She won nine Grammys, the first two for that hit song you hear, "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)."
Her voice was beautiful but she also made it known that her life was, at times, very troubled as she bravely battled substance abuse. Jeremy Roth has her story.
JEREMY ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She was the daughter of a singing legend who found her own musical success. As the child of Nat King Cole and orchestra singer Maria Hawkins Ellington, Natalie Cole was exposed to a rich performing tradition from a young age.
Her 1991 version of her late father's standard, "Unforgettable," a virtual duet alongside his voice, helped the album sell millions of copies and win six Grammys in 1992.
Cole was open about a year's long struggle with drug abuse. She was diagnosed in 2008 with hepatitis C and went on a public search for a kidney transplant. Here's Cole on CNN's "Larry King Live" in 2009.
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NATALIE COLE, AMERICAN SINGER, SONGWRITER: It's like a virus, you know, and they treat it very aggressively. But I've had it forever and I had it from drug use.
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ROTH (voice-over): A nurse at the hospital where Cole was being treated was so moved by the star's struggle that, when her niece suddenly died, she arranged for Cole to receive her kidney.
Meanwhile, her family says, in her absence, they're now left with, quote, "heavy hearts," but add that she died how she lived, with dignity, strength and honor. Natalie Cole was 65 years old.
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HOWELL: Reaction to Natalie Cole's death has been swift. Comedian Arsenio Hall wrote, "In college I named my bass guitar 'Natalie.' As a young standup comic, I opened for Natalie Cole. She was all that in all ways. Rest in peace."
Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson wrote the following, quote, "Natalie Cole, sister beloved and of substance and sound, may her soul rest in peace. Inseparable."
Talk show host and legal analyst, Star Jones, wrote the following, "No one is ever ready for the heaviness to your heart when you lose someone you love. The angels have my sister, Natalie Cole, now."
Actress Marlee Matlin wrote, "I'm saddened by the news of the passing of my friend, Natalie Cole. Lovely songbird and great actress, too. She is now singing in heaven."
And singer India Arie wrote, "Rest in peace, Natalie Cole. I really loved her. She was always so kind and fun and encouraging. I can't believe she's gone."
In the U.S. state of Georgia, some amateur astronomers have turned their hobby now into a way of life. Like-minded stargazers live on a plot of land that is illuminated only in red so they can always see the twinkle in the night sky. And some residents stay part-time while a couple others have retired there.
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JANE KUEHN, ASTRONOMER (voice-over): Before we came Deerlick Astronomy Village, I lived in a five-bedroom house in Maryland with sidewalks and pristine lawns. Down here at Deerlick Astronomy Village I'm 11 years old and I just have to be home in time for dinner, whatever time that is.
We have come to a really remote location. We are not quite halfway between Atlanta and Augusta. And so it minimizes the light pollution. When the sun goes down at the village here, you might take the roof off your observatory. It's a roll-off roof.
For me, I'm a visual observer, so I'll bring my telescope out of my shed and position it so that I am prepared, when it does get dark, then I can do my observing.
DAN LLEWELLYN, ASTRONOMER: This is a community where people have bought property and put houses on or just put observatories on to get away from the light pollution.
[05:55:00]
LLEWELLYN: The light pollution is really severe and it makes the sky gray and you can't see things like the Milky Way.
No white light is allowed at the Deerlick Astronomy Village. The whole community is just red lights only. And it preserves the integrity of the observing experience. And the planetary imaging for 15 years. People like me and others here will take shots of Jupiter, Mars, Saturn and we submit those images.
The amateur community is very important. We're the backbone of images that get submitted. It makes you feel excited and relevant about contributing to science and it's wonderful, wonderful.
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HOWELL: Very cool.
U.S. hockey went back to its roots this weekend for the annual winter classic. The Boston Bruins faced off against the Montreal Canadiens with a crowd of 67,000 people on hand.
The classic is played outdoors. A change of pace from the modern-day stadiums. Players even wore throwback jerseys. The Canadiens defeated the Bruins 5-1.
Miss Colombia says she had to grieve for what happened after Miss Universe. The host, Steve Harvey, accidentally named her the winner. Ariadna Gutierrez says she was humiliated when Harvey announced Miss Philippines had actually won just moments after the crown had been placed on her head.
She thinks it could have been handled better. Gutierrez says, looking on the bright side, though, job offers are pouring in for her in the United States.
That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell at the CNN Center in Atlanta. Thank you for joining us.
For our viewers in the United States, "NEW DAY" is next. And for other viewers around the world, "AMANPOUR" starts in just a moment. Thank you for watching CNN, the world's news leader.
