Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

President Obama Gun Townhall Reviewed; British Film Academy Announces Nominees; Truck Bombing in Libya Detailed; Video and Photographs from Syria Released; Saudi Arabia to Investige Possible Airstrike Hitting Iran Embassy in Yemen. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired January 08, 2016 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:01]

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN NEWSROOM HOST: In the CNN town hall meeting, U.S. President Barack Obama addresses his critics and says he does not want to take away people's guns.

High tension on the Korean peninsula as South Korea blasts propaganda across its northern border.

And the British Academy of Film and Television, BAFTA announces this year's nominees. Did your favorite movie make the list? We'll break it down this hour.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. This is CNN Newsroom live from Atlanta. I am Natalie Allen.

Thank you for joining us. We begin with the gun control debate once again, center stage in the U.S. President Barack Obama spent Thursday night defending executive actions he hopes reduce gun violence and mass shootings. They include more extensive background checks, mental health care funding, and technology to make guns safer to use. In a live townhall hosted by CNN, Mr. Obama spoke with an audience of gun rights supporters and gun control advocates. He also took questions, including from Mark Kelly, that's him next to his wife former Congresswoman Gabriele Gifford, a shooting survivor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Often what you hear in the debate of expanding background checks to more gun sales, and as you know, Gabby and I are 100 percent behind the concept of somebody getting a background check before buying a gun. But when we when we testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, we heard not only from the gun lobby, but from United States Senators that expanding background checks will lead to a registry which will lead to confiscation which will lead to a tyrannical government.

So I would like you to explain with 350 million guns in 65 million places households, from Key West to Alaska, 350 million objects in 65 million places, if the federal government wanted to confiscate those objects how would they do that?

BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, look -- this notion of a conspiracy out there and it gets wrapped up in concerns about the federal government, now there's a long history of that, that's in our DNA. You know the United States was bourn suspicious of some distant authority.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me jump in -- is it fair to call it a conspiracy? Because a lot of people really believe this deeply, that they don't trust you.

OBAMA: I am sorry, Cooper, it's fair to call it a conspiracy. What are you saying? Are you suggesting that the notion that we are creating a plot to take everybody's guns away so that we can impose martial law? That's a conspiracy. I would hope you would agree with that. Is that controversial?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: The largest gun rights advocate in the U.S., the NRA, the National Rifle Association rejected the invitation to attend the CNN town hall. But the NRA's Executive Director appeared on Fox News during the event.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS COX, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR NRA: This President can talk about background checks all day long. That's a distraction away from the fact that he can't keep us safe and he supported every gun control proposal that's ever been made. He doesn't support the individual right to own a firearm. What are we going to talk about, basketball? I am not interested in talking to the President who doesn't have a basic level of respect and understanding of the second amendment and law-abiding gun owners in this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Mr. Obama repeatedly argued that he wants to protect the constitutional right to bare arms, and he had this to day about the NRA's absence at the townhall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: There's a reason why the NRA is not here. They're just down the street. And since this is the main reason they exist, you'd think they would be prepared to have a debate with the President.

(CROSSTALK)

OBAMA: We invited them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, tonight you're saying...

OBAMA: We have invited them repeatedly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[03:05:01] ALLEN: In a CNN/ORC poll conducted this week, Americans were asked how they feel about Mr. Obama's proposals. John King breaks down what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We asked people in our new poll, first a more general question, what is your opinion of the President's gun policy overall, 43 percent approve, 53 percent disapprove. The President's numbers are going up in just the last two weeks, why? Because a lot of liberals who thought he should do more are now getting more happy. Specifically, about the proposals the President outlined the other day, more background checks, more FBI agents, two- thirds of Americans favor what President says he wants to do. One- third says they oppose what the President wants to do. That's a good number for the President.

When you look at the breakdown -- interestingly, he has a majority, very slight of an evenly divided Republican Party on this issue. The President gets 51 percent, more than 6 in 10, nearly two-thirds of independents. So the President has Democrats and has independents and has a good number of Republicans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: If you missed the CNN exclusive town hall with the U.S. President, international viewers can catch an encore presentation in just a few hours. That will be at 10:00 a.m. in London, 6:00 in the evening in Hong Kong.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula are growing after the north said it detonated a hydrogen bomb. The South is now blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda at the North through the DMZ.

The broadcast began several hours ago, South Korea is also increasing its defensive posture along the border. At times, the north has viewed these broadcasts as acts of war. The U.S. is preparing to vote on tougher sanctions against North Korea, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says China, North Korea's only real ally in the Asia pacific has failed to fully enforce current sanctions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: China had a particular approach that it wanted to make and we agreed and respected to give them space, to be able to implement that. But today in my conversation with the Chinese, I made it very clear, that has not worked and we cannot continue business as usual. We'll work closely together to determine the steps we can take in order to address our increasing concerns about that nuclear test.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: All of this comes on what is believed to be Kim Jong-Un's 33rd birthday. There has been speculation that the nuclear test was timed for the event. Meanwhile, officials in Pyongyang tell CNN they're prepared for whatever new sanctions come their way. CNN's is the only U.S. broadcaster reporting from inside North Korea, here is our Will Ripley with more.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I have been meeting with officials here in Pyongyang. This is all about defending North Korea's national sovereignty. This is a country for the better part of 70 years has felt consistently under the imminent threat of invasion from the United States and its allies. The U.S. of course, is tied very closely militarily with South Korea. U.S. troops are stationed along the demilitarized zone along with South Korean troops. That's North Korea's justification to continue to aggressively invest and develop their nuclear program, but also their missile program.

And they have 1 million troops. Things are already tense here in the peninsula after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in the last 15 years. North Korea claims they have experts that can prove it was in fact that it was a hydrogen bomb. No change in radiation levels have been detected by China, South Korea and Japan. Officials I met here in Pyongyang said new technology was used to reduce the amount of radiation spewed into the atmosphere. In the meantime, I asked about the possibility of additional sanctions with the United States voting next week on more harsh sanctions against the North Korean regime.

Frankly, they're not worried about sanctions. It doesn't intimidate them. They will tighten their belts and go without food and electricity if they have to defend their nation, Will Ripley, CNN Pyongyang, North Korea.

[03:10:01]

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Paula Hancocks joins us now live from Seoul with more on those propaganda broadcasts and other measures South Korea is taking in response to the events this week, Paula, hello.

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Natalie. Well, these loud speakers have been working for several hours. One way that South Korean knows it will get some kind of reaction from North Korea, or at least it will annoy them. One of the very few ways they know they're getting to Pyongyang. It's seen as a sore spot for them. And of course, the question is why will this psychological warfare affect a country so much that's appeared to be un-phased by international sanctions or sanctions already in place.

According to analysts I spoke to this morning, the answer to that is they are scared of the truth. These loud speakers are broadcasting facts about South Korea, the health of the economy, facts about North Korea, the anti regime propaganda, and this is exactly what North Korea doesn't want its people to hear. Of course, this kind of propaganda is exactly what they are scared of. They did fire on these large speakers last summer, the last time they used. Before that, they hadn't been used for a decade. Seoul is ratcheting up the tensions further than they already were.

There's a potential of a violent reaction from North Korea.

ALLEN: And if so, what are the changes that South Korea is doing as far as shifting in a military in the DMZ?

HANCOCKS: Well, we know that there's a heightened defensive posture, basically, heightened security for the military along that DMZ, the most heavily fortified border in the world. We know also that they're beefing up their cyber security, a way North Korea has attacked the south by cyber attacks, some quite significant and some fairly damaging. We know probably around 10 of these speakers that are currently being used -- some of them are mobile as well. It's worth mentioning, they do play music. They play k-pop.

Part of this psychological warfare that Seoul knows works and it will get some kind of reaction from North Korea.

ALLEN: All right, Paula Hancocks following it for us from Seoul. Thank you, Paula.

Still ahead here on CNN Newsroom, almost one year ago, terror at a supermarket in Paris, we'll have a story about two men who are from the same country but they have a very, very different way that they responded to this story, one was a killer and one a hero. We'll have that story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:18:30]

ALLEN: Europe's financial markets hope to recover from a drastic slide at the start of the New Year. Trading is just getting underway at this hour. Let's check out the early numbers. London's FTSE up percent .39 percent in Paris, and Frankfurt, the DAX is up .33 percent. Chinese stocks rebounded Friday, although results in the Asia-pacific region are mixed. Tokyo's niche finished slightly lower. Trading has just ended in Hong Kong with the Hang Seng finished up .59 percent. The Shanghai Composite closed two percent higher after steep losses earlier in the week, and Australia's ASX200 finished lower.

We have a team of correspondents covering world markets, Matt Rivers is in Beijing. Let's start with the anchor of CNN's Business View. Nina Dos Santos is in London for us. Nina, how is Europe reacting this morning?

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A note of cautious optimism here, Natalie. As you can see, we're seeing a few more green arrows across the board. I should caution some of these markets if they look down they're down be a huge amount Athens' market opened. So as you can see, FTSE, DAX going up which is good, but not by a huge amount given the hefty falls we saw yesterday. Markets in the United States, remember they had their worst week ever for the DOW Jones industrial average, particularly the DOW suffering from the two falls that we saw, the sharp falls in China. That, again, feeding into the mix, not setting up for a very, very

positive day here. European markets trade heavily with China, but also the largest trading partner of the European Union, just above China is actually the United States. So those two markets worrying people at the moment over here -- the DAX is up around .37 percent, a note of cautious optimism. We have had evidence that the slowdown in China that has been ruining investor sentiments on Chinese stocks. German markets said it unexpectedly fell for the month. Listed companies that are making their stocks, making their inventory in China, sending goods to China, being affected, their stocks will be affected by these markets too.

Some of the European markets coming back, a bit of relief, but only cautious, Natalie.

ALLEN: Nina Dos Santos for us there in London. Let's turn now to Matt Rivers and talk more about China. He's in Beijing and Matt, what helped revive the Chinese markets?

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, much better today here, stock markets here closed not long ago, and in terms of what helped out, basically what investors are telling us it was the news that overnight that happened late Thursday night, around 10:30 local time or just after 10:30, when Chinese regulators came out they were going to be suspending use of the circuit breakers. Now you'll remember it was the circuit breakers that were installed just this week in China that basically -- automatically halted trading twice during the week here, these circuit breakers once stocks fell seven percent, they automatically kicked in and halted trading for the day.

What many people were saying -- many observers of the markets were saying, it actually panicked the markets more and made things worse. So we asked one expert in Hong Kong what he thought this morning about the fact that those circuit breakers have been suspended by Chinese regulators.

ANDREW SULLIVAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR: I think it's actually quite wise. I think the real reason is the circuit breakers were introduced in the U.S. to stop computers racing against each other, and that's not the sort of market China is. They put in their own orders. So it's not like you got computers that are going to run haywire.

[03:23:30]

RIVERS: So what he's talking about there is just your average Chinese investor who was seeing what was going on with these circuit breakers, and rather than taking a step back, they were like up their stocks to short sell.

ALLEN: What a volatile start to the New Year. Matt Rivers following for us from Beijing, thank you, Matt.

Now to Paris, where investigators are working to learn more about a knife-wielding man shot and killed by officers after he tried to enter a police station. Authorities say he was also carrying a fake explosive device and a handwritten note in Arabic stamped with the ISIS flag. We don't know the man's identity or motive. This week marks one year anniversary of the brutal terror attacks at Charlie Hebdo office in Paris and the related attacks that followed it. CNN's Jim Bittermann talks with the man some call a hero for his actions on that day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: For one dramatic moment, parallel lives came together, they would end in radically different ways. For terrorist (Inaudible), it was in hail of police gun fire, the gunman had killed four people and had taken hostages at a kosher supermarket, and then this man took over. Early on, he fell into petty crime and drug dealing and radical Islam. But that deadly day a year ago, there was another immigrant, a busboy at the kosher supermarket. He turned out to be a hero

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I opened the door of the freezer and said come, come.

BITTERMANN: He shouted shoppers and workers in the freezer. And told police what the situation was inside. People called him the hero.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, not a hero. I always live like that. I was raised like that, to help other people -- to aid those in trouble. My parents taught me that.

BITTERMANN: All those (Inaudible) had protected made it out of the store without injury, and when the government heard about the young Malian's role in the hostage taking, his life began to change. For years, he had been on a waiting list to become a permanent resident in France. They practically overnight made him a French citizen. He wrote a book about his experience and now he works for the Paris city government. How did an immigrant from Mali became a hero? And the son of Malian immigrants became a terrorist? (Inaudible) has several explanations but topping the list are family and education. He grew up in a very large and very poor family, the only boy among 10 children, a much different upbringing that that of (Inaudible) in Mali.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you wanted to do anything even as an adult, it was your parents who decided. That makes a difference between me and him.

BITTERMANN: But there are other differences, he left his homeland with an immigrant's burning desire to find a new life and become a success. The homegrown terrorist, unemployed and on the fringes of French society never had a sense, a social worker once said of purpose or of right and wrong. Two young Frenchmen whose paths crossed one decisive day last January, Jim Bittermann, CNN Paris.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: U.S. authorities have arrested two refugees from Iraq, one in Texas, one in California on terror-related charges. A 24-year-old man living in Houston is charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS, and a 23-year-old man in Sacramento, California is accused of lying to immigration officials after he allegedly traveled to Syria in 2013 to fight for terror groups.

A series of sexual assaults and robberies in Cologne, Germany is escalating tensions over immigration in that country. We'll have more on that investigation and what's behind it specifically right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:31:30]

ALLEN: And welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. This is CNN Newsroom live from Atlanta. I am Natalie Allen with our top stories.

U.S. President Barack Obama spent more than an hour Thursday night, laying out his case for stricter gun laws. Gun rights advocates pressed the President on how he's working to make America safer. Mr. Obama said he's not trying to take guns away from law-abiding owners.

South Korea is now blasting propaganda broadcasts at the DMZ directed at North Korea. This in response to Pyongyang's claim it detonated a hydrogen bomb this week. The south has also increased its military defensive posture. The north has at times, reacted to these broadcasts with artillery fire.

At least 50 people are dead in a truck bombing in western Libya, the town's mayor said the vehicle plowed into a group of about 400 people at a police training center and then exploded. Authorities say they don't know yet who's behind it.

New video and pictures from Syria are disturbing and they're reminding people of World War II concentration camps. The images we'll show you are graphic, but they're important to understand the crisis and what people left behind and cut off are going through. They show victims of starvation in the town of Medaya which has been under siege by regime forces for months. But soon a U.N. convoy will bring needed food and supplies. Here is CNN's Arwa Damon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The children of Medaya are starving. The voice begs, the baby's eyes seeming to echo that desperate plea for help. A little boy said he hasn't had a real meal in seven days, and this baby, according to the video hasn't had milk in a month. CNN cannot independently verify these accounts or the stories emerging, under siege by regime forces since July. The last time aid reached the area was in October. They saw hunger in the eyes of its residents. Doctors Without Borders says 23 patients in the center have died of starvation, including six babies.

But in the twisted reality of Syria's war, it does have to get this grim for help to arrive. The U.N. said that the Syrian government has agreed to allow aid convoys into Medaya and two other towns also under siege.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is an area that's completely besieged and surrounded by mountains covered in snow, so it gets through tunnels and it's extremely expensive. We expect also irreversible damage to the children who have witnessed some of the worst weapons of war which is starving them.

DAMON: Syria's cruel and harsh war now into the fifth year has seen scenes like this before and worse. These stills are being circulated by activists set to show children eating leaves, and it's hardly the only portion of the population severely suffering from the war, hardly the only atrocity, Arwa Damon, CNN, Istanbul.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Heartbreaking images there from Syria. If you want to know how you can be of assistance, logon always to our special impact your world website at CNN.com/impact. We'll find links to groups working to help those devastated by the war, including those who have been driven from their homes by violence. Learn more at CNN.com/impact.

Saudi Arabia says it will investigate claims that its warplanes launched an intentional strike on Iran's embassy in Yemen. The accusation comes from Iran which says the building was damaged and several embassy personnel were wounded. CNN can't independently confirm the embassy was hit. Residents in the area reported a small explosion but no obvious air strike.

[03:36:01]

Tensions between the two countries escalated when Saudi Arabia announced it executed 47 people last week including a Shiite cleric Nimr Al Nimr. CNN's Nic Robertson met exclusively with Al Nimr's brother in Saudi Arabia to get his perspective on what has been happening. Robertson said visiting him in his hometown there required heavy security as you'll see.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The police tell us it's not safe for us to drive in here by ourselves. They're bringing us in one of their armored personnel carriers.

ALLEN: Nic will have more about his trip and his interview. He'll join us live in the next hour with more of his exclusive report. We invite you to watch.

We're learning more about the series of assaults on women in Cologne, Germany, during New Year's Eve celebrations. German media reporting that groups of men prevented police from reaching people carrying out -- crying out for help that night, and those men threatened anyone who might try to identify them, one man is sited "I am Syrian. You have to be nice to me. Ms. Merkel has invited me." That comes from an internal federal police report obtained by German media.

Authorities have not confirmed the identities of the suspects to CNN, but the assaults have fueled a political firestorm over immigration and victims rights in Germany. Here is CNN's Michael Holmes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In Germany, angry demonstrators

take to the streets to protest violence against women, as police face mounting pressure from the handling of numerous reports of sexual assault during Cologne's New Year's Eve celebrations. The week after the incident, German Chancellor Angela Merkel finally speaks out.

ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR: What happened at New Year is completely unacceptable. Those are despicable, criminal acts which the state will not accept, including Germany. That's why an intensive investigation by the relevant institutions is under way. This investigation must be supported. The feeling women had in this case of being completely defenseless and at mercy is for me, personally intolerable.

HOLMES: Cologne Police received more than 100 criminal complaints from women who say they had been sexually assaulted or robbed by gangs of men of Arab or North African descent during the celebration outside the city's main train station.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The men surrounded us and started to grab our behinds and our crutches. They touched us everywhere. I wanted to take my friend and leave. I turned around and in that moment someone grabbed my bag.

HOLMES: Victims say there wasn't enough security at the event and felt they had no one to help them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We ran to the police, but we saw the police were so understaffed. They couldn't take care of us. We, as women, suffered the price.

HOLMES: Police continue to go through large amounts of cell phone footage from that evening, saying they've identified several suspects but have made no arrests. Germans are furious with Cologne's mayor who suggested women protect themselves from men on the streets by keeping them at arm's-length. And German broadcasters apologized on Facebook for not reporting the story earlier. A country already overwhelmed with the influx of more than 1 million refugees, now dealing with fear and anger as the search for the perpetrators continues, Michael Holmes, CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: In just a moment here, air pollution levels in New Delhi are spiking to a dangerous level and CNN's Sumnima Udas is there.

SUMNIMA UDAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pollution levels have increased to hazardous levels here, Natalie, more on that after the break from the city with the most toxic air.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:43:01]

ALLEN: In India, a dense fog has taken over the city of New Delhi, spiking pollution to dangerous levels. Look at that. And also disrupting traffic in the process, among other problems. Our Sumnima Udas joins us now live from New Delhi, and Sumnima, I am used to talking to live reports in Beijing and seeing backgrounds like we just saw, but now it's New Delhi. What can you tell us about this?

UDAS: That's right, Natalie, visibility has improved quite a bit because it's mid-day. But early this morning when we woke up, there was an incredibly dense fog, the worst we have seen all winter. Trains have been canceled, flights as well. The metric used to measure the pollutants, the small microscopic particles in the air, the most damaging to the lungs, that was around 500 this morning, currently it's around 400. That's 15 times worse than the WHO deems is acceptable, we were checking out how bad it was in Beijing this morning and it was around 60, so 60 in Beijing, around 400 to 500 here.

This is all happening as Delhi is experimenting with this new scheme called the odd-even scheme. Basically, since January 1st allowing private cars to travel on alternate days. So congestion has decreased significantly over the past few days. But pollution levels have not been affected because cars are not the main contributor to the pollution here, a number of causes, tens of thousands of trucks that come into Delhi every single day -- to make way for new farm lands.

Another contributors to the pollution here and many people here are starting to say that if the government is serious about tackling pollution here, then they have to look at all of these other issues as well, Natalie.

ALLEN: I was thinking that in China -- you know a country with such a mass population like India, there's not a collective environmental force. People don't have access to the courts to affect change. And is there a growing voice, a collective voice with power there to speak out and have something done perhaps about environmental issues?

UDAS: Well, the awareness levels here are certainly nowhere close to where it is in Beijing. It has improve significantly over the past year, this huge media campaign for the local TV channels here and also the newspapers here -- have come out and also people are talking about these issues a lot more, but certainly nowhere close to New Delhi. Natalie, when we saw this air this morning, in the wintertime lot of people would say this is winter fog or desert wind from the deserts nearby, so people are almost in a denial here, not really aware that this is actually pollution.

It's hard to distinguish between what is fog and what is pollution. Also the government has come up with all of these new initiatives including the one we were just talking about like the odd-even scheme, Natalie.

ALLEN: We hope it starts to work there. Thank you so much for bringing us the latest on that situation, Sumnima Udas live in New Delhi.

Well, there's smoke in Australia caused by fire, and firefighters are working to tackle a huge fire burning south of Perth. Flames have destroyed nearly 100 buildings so far in the small town in Yarloop. There are no mandatory evacuations, but officials are urging people to leave or to actively defend their properties. And of course, we saw many luxury homes burned to the ground a couple of weeks in another area. Let's check in with Allison Chinchar. She's following this story for us from the international weather center, hi, Allison.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And hello, Natalie. You feel for these people because it doubled in size overnight, really not giving these folks much time to gather their belongings and get out of their homes in time. Here is the city of Perth, on the northern end. You can see there are a few bush fires up there.

[03:48:01]

The largest cluster is well far to the south of that area. Here, we zoom in closer. Here's the city of Yarloop we were talking about. Look at the immense area. They doubled in size overnight. A few firefighters were actually treated for burns as they were trying to battle some of these blazes, and hundreds of power poles were burned with this as well. One of the other more populated areas is here again -- it's hitting areas that are fairly populated throughout this area. One other story to talk about is farther north and east of this area the. Here you can see the blue-shaded areas. The light blue was above average rain for the month of December.

The dark blue was record amounts of rain. So we've been dealing with the bush fires on the far western side and also some wildfires on the eastern side. But the central portion of the country has been dealing with immense amounts of rain. The reason this is very important is because the basin that sits underneath all of these rivers and streams in this area, they all end up flowing into this lake, Lake Eyre. Lake Eyre is not a very busy lake on a normal basis. In fact, here is a look as of last year, January of last year, this is the lake right here in blue. Fast forward to December, just about a month ago, when we first started seeing a little bit of that rain coming in, you can see the lake beginning to grow, but now you fast forward to this month, on January 8th, all of that record rain that happened on the northern end of Australia eventually flows back into this.

Again, some of the imagery coming out of these areas, you can see some of the aerials showing this when the lake is full, it ends up becoming the largest lake they have in Australia. It only happens about four times every century. Again, it's a rarity and they're actually hoping this may boost the tourism business in this area.

ALLEN: Ok, well, it's nice to end on a positive for sure. Allison, thank you.

Britain is celebrating the best in film and television. The BAFTA nominations are just in this past hour. We'll tell you which stars and movies got the nod.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:55:11]

ALLEN: Big news about the silver screen. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced its nominees for the BAFTA Awards, the best in movies in 2015.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the nominations for best film are the Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Carol, the Revenant, and Spotlight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: In the leading actress category, the nominees -- there's a name we never see, Cate Blanchett, Brie Larson, Alicia Vikander, and Maggie Smith. And nominated for leading actor, Eddie Redmayne, Leonardo Dicaprio, Michael Fassbender and Matt Damon and Brian Cranston, winners will be announced at London's Royal Opera House February 14th, Valentine's Day.

Joining me now from our London Bureau is film critic Richard Fitzwilliam with his take on the BAFTA shortlist. Richard, thank you for talking with us, and you were just telling me during the commercial break that they really spread it out here with who made the list.

RICHARD FITZWILLIAM, LONDON BUREAU FILM CRITIC: They spread it out extremely well. This is about as perfect a list I have ever seen of nominees. It's the way with several themes this year, several movies, prominent movies set in the 1950s, others dealing with themes of sexuality, very, very high standard, what they seem to be aiming at are the possibility of giving a BAFTA in the major categories to prominent individuals who have never previously won. For example Leonardo Dicaprio for best actor, it seems likely for the Revenant, where he plays a survivor -- this is what I would put a bet on Eddie Redmayne could run him close.

The Martian I would suggest has an excellent opportunity for best director. And a young girl who's coming of age we see examined in Brooklyn. There are some wonderful performances here.

ALLEN: Right, because you were saying, that even though Cate Blanchett, a name we often see and someone we often see go to the stage, you don't think she's one of the top contenders in the leading actress category.

FITZWILLIAM: She's won three BAFTA's already. She's superb in Carol. But in that movie, the one certainty in that movie is Rooney Mara will win for best supporting actress. In the movie set in the 1950s. Best documentary about the sad life of Amy Winehouse and also Inside Out for best animation. But what we've got here are some close races. For example, best supporting actor you could have the Commander in a remarkable movie up against -- in Bridge of Spies. Too close to call as well. But I noticed rather interesting to see the Big Short, a comedy drama about the financial crisis appeared to be very, very popular. But I was surprised Charlotte was not nominated. A brilliant film could win best picture. That is a surprise.

ALLEN: All right, so you make me feel a real loser because I think I have seen two of the films you just ran through right there. So if we want to get out there, I only got 10 seconds left before the BAFTA's and see two films, what are two you would say we got to see?

FITZWILLIAM: You must forgive me but I am going to make it four, because it got to be the brilliant Spotlight, superb story about the way the Boston Globe unearthed child abuse by catholic priests, the Revenant, a powerful movie. Carol, which is lyrical and Bridge of Spies, absolutely surprising.

ALLEN: All right, we're out of time. Thank you so much for joining us, Richard Fitzwilliam.

And thank you all for joining CNN Newsroom. I am Natalie Allen.

[04:00:00]