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Soldiers Hunting for Gunmen in Hotel Attack; Iran Waiting for IAEA Certification; The Child Soldiers of ISIS; Historic Taiwan Elections; Sean Penn on "Rolling Stone" Article; Trump-Cruz Friendship Fizzles; Dangerous Conditions at Detroit Public Schools; One Brain Dead after French Drug Trial; The Gulf War 25 Years On. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired January 16, 2016 - 04:00   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): Twenty people reportedly killed, dozens of hostages in a terror attack in West Africa. We'll have details and more about the militant group that is claiming responsibility.

Sweeping change expected in Taiwan as polls close in the island's presidential election. The country could soon have its first female leader.

And any decision day for Iran. Decision day could be soon after more than a decade of diplomacy. An announcement on the possible lifting of nuclear sanctions is expected at any time now.

From CNN World Headquarters 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 we start with terror in West Africa. Soldiers are hunting for the suspected Islamic gunmen in Burkina Faso's capital.

Witnesses say the gunmen mingled with unsuspecting hotel guests during the day on Friday. But when night fell, they struck, opening fire and taking dozens of people hostage before security forces eventually made their way into the hotel.

One survivor says he barely made it out alive, climbing through a broken window. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YANNICK SAWADOGO, ATTACK SURVIVOR (through translator): It's horrible because everyone was panicked and was laying down on the floor. There was blood everywhere. They were shooting at people at point blank.

The sound of the detonation was so loud we could hear them talking and they were walking around and kept shooting at people that seemed alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Terrifying accounts there of what people saw. An Al Qaeda- linked affiliate is claiming responsibility for this attack. It's the same group that also claimed responsibility for a similar hotel attack in neighboring Mali last November.

Our David McKenzie covered that siege and now joins us live this hour.

David, good to have you with us. So this operation is reportedly still underway, as teams go room by room, trying to end this attack.

What is the very latest?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: George, the latest is that the death toll, as you say, is at least 20, according to the foreign ministry in Burkina Faso. That could well rise, due to the well coordinated, it seems, attack by these gunmen.

As you say, there were several hidden within the population and tourists during the day. And then more came in at night. Heavy explosions, gunfire, attacking first a cafe next to this hotel, then moving over to the Splendid Hotel, both locations right near the international airport and going in there with guns blazing.

Burkina Bay forces and U.S. forces, but particularly French special forces flown in from Mali, according to the foreign ministry, were involved in different ways in that operation. The latest was that the ongoing operation was trying to check room by room.

Scores have been taken to the local hospital, the wounded. But, as I said, there are fears that that death toll could rise in this well- coordinated and horrific attack -- George.

HOWELL: David, as we saw in Mali, this attack hit a hotel that was packed with foreigners. And, in this case, Africans, Europeans, Japanese and even an American hostage reportedly involved.

What are we hearing about what these witnesses saw?

MCKENZIE: What they saw, as you heard from that witness, is mayhem and very cold, calculating intent to kill. There is multiple reports that the gunmen were trying to attack Westerners, foreigners within these locations.

Of course, they are locations well frequented by U.N. staff, foreigners visiting, NGO workers, much like the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali, which the same group of terror -- interrelated terror groups attacked in late November.

This marks an escalation, I think, of that attack because of the way that this unfolded, the firepower that they used and, potentially, because of the death toll they might incur.

HOWELL: David, this is the first major attack of its kind in the capital that is surrounded by countries that are dealing with jihadi groups.

Can you tell us more about the group or groups behind this?

MCKENZIE: Well, the site, the intelligence group that monitors jihadi groups, has said this is being claimed by two groups interrelated. One is Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb; the other is Al-Mourabitoun.

Now both groups joined, they say, in early December after those Mali attacks, which they jointly coordinated. This marks a dramatic increase and likelihood of their capacity within the Sahel in North Africa region. There have --

[04:05:00]

MCKENZIE: -- been attacks in neighboring countries like Niger, of course, Mali and others. As you said, this is the first major attack in the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou, but there have been isolated incidents near the border.

But clearly the location of the attack, the people they were trying to kill, indicates they're trying to get maximum attention and strike at soft targets with links to the West -- George.

HOWELL: David McKenzie, live for us in Johannesburg, David, thank you so much for your reporting. And we will stay in touch with you to get the very latest on this continuing situation there.

Any minute now we could get word out of Vienna on whether decades-old sanctions against Iran will be lifted. That's where the International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to certify if Iran has kept its end of the historic deal concerning its nuclear program.

It's taken years of diplomacy to get to this point. Between 2006 and 2010, the U.N. Security Council passed six different resolutions targeting Iran's nuclear program.

In 2013, the P5+1 countries, those are countries of the U.S., Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany, reached an interim deal with Iran. It called on the country to limit its nuclear activities in return for lighter sanctions while a long-term agreement is then negotiated.

Talks were extended until April of last year. That's when negotiators reached a framework deal for an agreement. Then in July, the U.S. and Iran agreed to a nuclear deal during a final meeting in Vienna.

For more on this story, we're coverage it from all sides, we have our senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, live for us in Berlin with what is next and CNN's emerging markets editor, John Defterios, in Abu Dhabi on how Iran's economy will be impacted.

But, Fred, let's go ahead and start with you. Good to have you with us.

If certified, this would eventually lead to implementation day and the eventual lifting of sanctions.

But help our viewers understand; that wouldn't all happen at once, correct?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it would happen in pretty quick succession, George. What would happen is that today or probably imminently, the IAEA would announce that Iran has done everything that it needs to do to comply with its side of the nuclear agreement.

And then after that, the P5+1 nations, the U.S. and other Western countries, would then announce that sanctions would be lifted, a lot of them almost immediately.

Of course it would take a while -- I'm sure John will talk about this -- for a lot of the business relations to then get back on track but there are some things, for instance, that would happen almost immediately.

The Iranians, for instance, expect that about $50 billion in frozen assets would be unfrozen almost immediately. Now the Iranians, for their part, are saying they believe that this announcement will happen very soon. Iran's foreign minister has come out and said he believes the announcement will be made today.

Let's listen into what Javad Zarif, who's in Vienna, had to say.

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MOHAMMAD JAVAD ZARIF, IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: We have the implementation day, so we expect to have the implementation day today. I believe it's not just an important day for economic activity in Iran.

It is going to open the possibilities, vast possibilities in Iran, for economic engagement. And we have all seen that the national business community is very much interested in getting engaged in Iran to take advantage of it.

But more importantly, it is extremely important for diplomacy. Today is the day when we prove to the world that threats, sanctions, intimidation, pressure don't work. Respect works. Through respect, through dialogue, through negotiations, we can, in fact, reach mutually acceptable solutions.

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PLEITGEN: And the IAEA, for its part, has put the reporters there in Vienna on notice, saying there would be an announcement sometime today, saying they should come to the conference center fairly quickly.

The E.U. foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, has also traveled to Vienna, as has U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. So certainly it certainly appears as though they are all gearing up for -- by almost all accounts -- is certainly going to be a very historic day -- George.

HOWELL: And Fred, given your travels to Tehran and your reporting there on many occasions, what is the feeling of Iranians about what could happen here?

PLEITGEN: Well, the vast majority of Iranians want to this deal to go forward. They believe that they're going to get sanctions relief. They're going to get it very quickly.

The Iranians have always felt that they were hamstrung by the sanctions, by the international sanctions against them. You have to keep in mind, it's a very young population, it's a very well-educated population.

It's also one that actually has a great deal of respect for the West as well and wants to do business with global countries. They want this deal to go forward. One of the reasons why Hassan Rouhani, the very moderate president --

[04:10:00]

PLEITGEN: -- was voted into office was because he ran on a platform, saying I'm going to get the economy of this country on track.

On the other hand, you have Iranian hardliners around the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also large parts of the Iranian military, who felt that Iran is giving up too much in these negotiations, who want to keep a confrontational course towards the U.S. and who are very uncomfortable with this nuclear agreement.

And certainly you do see a struggle between these two sides. That's one of the reasons why the gains that have been made so far are still very fragile. No one is saying that this nuclear deal couldn't fall apart at some point if one of the sides makes some sort of uncalculated move.

But as far as the vast majority of Iranians are concerned, they are ready for this; they want this. They believe that there are going to be huge benefits to having relations with the United States and other countries in general.

HOWELL: Fred Pleitgen live for us in Berlin.

Fred, please stand by with us. Thank you so much for your reporting.

But let's turn also to John Defterios who joins us in Abu Dhabi.

John, good to have you as well this hour. So you heard Fred a moment ago talking about the lifting of sanctions, some $50 billion in frozen assets that could be made accessible. And also Iran being able to sell its oil on world markets again. So let's talk dollars and cents.

What could this mean for Iran?

JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Well, in fact, George, Iran is eager to get out of the shadow of the sanctions. But it couldn't come at a worse time for the oil markets specifically. Two different stages in the near term.

In the first week here, if, in fact, implementation day goes ahead as Fred is suggesting, Iran will be able to release up to half a million barrels a day onto the market, has some 35 million barrels in storage.

This is a market that is already oversupplied. We've seen that $30 barrel broken, which is a 12-year low. And then over the next 12 months, Iran wants to add another 1.5 million barrels a day to the market. Bijan Zangeneh, when I saw the oil minister in Tehran, said it's a half a million barrels a day immediately, another half a million in six months and then six months after that, another half a million.

So what does this mean?

There's 1.5 million added to a market, which is already oversupplied by 1.5 million barrels a day. It's like adding another Kuwait or the UAE to the market. Now it's not clear sailing. The video you're looking at here is from West Karun, when I visited back in November.

Iran needs to raise money and the sanctions have isolated them from foreign investment. They would like to raise $170 billion over the next six years to try to boost production from the current 2.8 million barrels a day to the pre-sanctions level of 4.3 million barrels a day.

But, again, George, it couldn't come at a worse time for the energy market with oil prices hovering at a 12-year low.

HOWELL: So the timing may be tricky here. But, John, again, a very important and significant moment pending here for Iran.

John Defterios live for us in Abu Dhabi and Fred Pleitgen live in Berlin, gentlemen, thank you so much for your reporting. And it's good to have such a deep bench of knowledge and experience on this story. We will stay in touch and be back with you as the situation unfolds.

Now we move on to Iraq, where there is an ongoing battle to bring home children who are forced to kill for ISIS. Those who have been freed from the terror group still live in fear. Our Nima Elbagir went to Northern Iraq In this CNN exclusive to get the chilling story of the ISIS child soldiers.

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NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Five-year-old Sara was captured alongside her mother by ISIS.

Now free, when her parents aren't looking, she runs to cover her face. It's what their ISIS captors taught her at gunpoint.

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ELBAGIR (voice-over): Al Farouq Institute in Raqqah: ISIS claims it is their main child soldier training facility.

"To jihad, to jihad," they're chanting.

In this propaganda video, spread out on either side of an ISIS trainer, blank-faced rows of children sit. One boy shakes visibly. Others unable to raise their gaze.

These are the so-called cubs of the caliphate, ISIS' army of child soldiers.

"And by God's grace," he's saying, "in the coming days they will be at the front lines of the fight against the nonbelievers."

The Gweyr front line, south of the Kurdistan regional capital, Erbil, the Peshmerga commander tells us this is one of their most contested front lines.

ELBAGIR: Just the other side of that river there, that's where he says the ISIS positions are. Just the other side of that broken bridge and it's from there, he says, that desperate children are fleeing, making their way through that river, swimming through the river, under cover of dark, risking their lives to make it here to safety.

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ELBAGIR (voice-over): But not all manage to escape.

AZIZ ABDULLAH HADUR, PESHMERGA COMMANDER (through translator): Many times when we are fighting ISIS, we see children at the front line. They're wearing explosive vests.

ELBAGIR: What's it like for you to have to open fire on children?

HADUR (through translator): They are brainwashed. When they make it through our lines, they kill our fighters. It's an unbearably hard decision. You don't know what to do. If you don't kill them, they'll kill you.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): U.S. military sources tell CNN, as ISIS comes under increased pressure on the battlefield, they are relying on child soldiers to fill out the ranks.

This 12-year-old boy was featured in the Al Farouq Institute propaganda video. He says he was training to be a suicide bomber.

Now reunited with his mother, he's asked us not to broadcast his face or his voice. He's asked that we call him "Nasir," not his real name.

"NASIR," ISIS CHILD SOLDIER (through translator): There were 60 of us. The scariest times for us all were when the airstrikes happened. They'd lead all of us underground into the tunnels to hide. They told us the Americans, the unbelievers, were trying to kill us but they, the fighters, they loved us.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): This, of course, was all part of the indoctrination. His ISIS handlers would tell him they were now his only family.

"NASIR" (through translator): When we were training, they would tell us our parents were unbelievers, unclean, and that our first job was to go back and kill them, that we were cleaning the world of them, of all unbelievers.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): "Nasir" says the youngest of the boys was 5 years old, none of them exempt from the grueling training.

"NASIR" (through translator): We weren't allowed to cry but I would think about my mother, think about her worrying about me and I'd try and cry quietly.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): Highly stylized and romanticized, ISIS has released a number of videos, showcasing its child army. But the reality is, of course, very different.

HADUR (through translator): When they arrive to us, they are so skinny they barely look human. They tell us they've been living in a hell.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): Back at the camp, Sara's mother hopes her little girl will evenly forget about the headscarf and the face covering and the men with guns, who threatened her life -- Nima Elbagir, CNN, Gweyr, Iraq.

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HOWELL: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

And still to come, actor Sean Penn is breaking his silence about his interview with El Chapo. Find out why he says his "Rolling Stone" article on the drug kingpin failed.

Plus the results of a landmark election in Taiwan are soon expected. We take you live to Taipei, where voters there could soon have their first female president. Stay with us.

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HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell.

The votes are being counted in a potentially historic election in Taiwan. The polls closed about an hour ago. Results are expected soon. And Tsai Ing-wen could be elected Taiwan's first female president. Tsai's Democratic Progressive Party, the DPP, has traditionally favored Taiwan's independents.

So as you can imagine, China will be paying very close attention to this election as well. Let's go live to Taipei. Our Kristie Lu Stout is standing by, following this election.

Kristie, good to have you with us this hour. So let's talk about what this could mean, first of all, to cross-straits relations if Tsai's elected.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR: The vote count is under way and Tsai Ing-wen, of the opposition DPP party, is on her way, some say, to become the next president of Taiwan. She is a 59-year-old former trade negotiator. She is known as Dr. Tsai after receiving her Ph.D. at the London School of Economics.

She's never held an elected post before. If she becomes the next president of Taiwan, she will be facing an array of challenges, including a stagnating economy, a rising and very increasingly vocal youth movement, the tricky relationship with China navigating those cross-straits ties and also the rising sense of Taiwan identity.

Now there has been a video that's gone viral, it shows a Taiwan pop star being forced to kowtow, being forced to apologize for waving the Taiwan flag at a recent performance. This is something that has enraged a number of people here on election day and it's something that is in the back of the minds of many people who went to the polls.

And I spoke to some of them at a polling station earlier today.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because it is (INAUDIBLE), it's very important for Taiwanese land, which is we want to concourse to China or we want to be a Taiwanese.

STOUT: And what do you want?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to be a Taiwanese.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): The KNP is most likely to provoke cross-strait troubles. They want peace. That's why I chose them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I vote for the DPP because this a very critical time that for the Taiwan people where the (INAUDIBLE) have our own democracy systems. We were not influenced by the (INAUDIBLE). It's very important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STOUT: Now Tsai Ing-wen is expected to win in a landslide victory. And if she does, she will be the first female leader of Taiwan. Back to you.

HOWELL: Kristie Lu Stout live for us in Taipei.

Kristie, thank you so much for your reporting and we'll stay in touch.

Actor Sean Penn is calling his shocking interview with the Mexican drug lord, El Chapo, a failure. Penn's article appeared this week in "Rolling Stone" magazine after he secretly met and later submitted questions to Joaquin Guzman. But now the actor says he regrets that interview. CNN's Rafael Romo explains.

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RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SR. LATIN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Sean Penn says he wants to set the record straight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS (voice-over): In an interview with Charlie Rose for the CBS show, "60 Minutes," Sean Penn says his goal was --

[04:25:00]

ROMO (voice-over): -- not to glorify Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman or the Sinaloa cartel.

"What I wanted to do," he told Rose, "was to start a conversation about the policy on the war on drugs."

But the coverage about Sean Penn's 10,000-word article that appeared Saturday in "Rolling Stone" magazine has centered on potential legal problems he may face because of it and the process of how he got access to El Chapo in the first place.

Penn also wanted to dispel the notion that the interview helped Mexican officials find El Chapo's whereabouts leading to his capture.

SEAN PENN, ACTOR: We have met with him many weeks earlier.

CHARLIE ROSE, CBS NEWS HOST: On October 2nd.

PENN: On October 2nd, in a place nowhere near where he was captured. We're not smarter than the DEA or the Mexican intelligence. We had a contact, upon which we were able to facilitate an invitation.

ROSE: Do you believe that the Mexican government released this, in part, because they wanted to see you blamed and to put you at risk?

PENN: Yes.

ROSE: They wanted to encourage the cartel to put you in their crosshairs?

PENN: Yes.

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ROMO (voice-over): Mexican officials have told us in the last few days that the meeting with El Chapo was essential to the drug lord's capture.

Kate del Castillo, the Mexican star that facilitated this interview, may also be in legal trouble. Authorities say they want to find out whether El Chapo funded her tequila distribution business in the United States and, if so, why.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMO: All authorities have said so far is that they want to question both actors to find out more about their interactions with El Chapo -- Rafael Romo, CNN.

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HOWELL: You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. And still to come, in the race for the U.S. president, the Republican bromance, it's over, as tensions between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz explode on stage in the last debate. Why some Democrats are now siding with Mr. Trump. That story coming up.

Plus French health officials launch an investigation after a drug trial turns disastrous, leaving one man brain dead. That story ahead.

Live from Atlanta and broadcasting around the world this hour, you are watching CNN NEWSROOM.

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HOWELL,(voice-over): A warm welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM. Good to have you with us. I'm George Howell. The headlines we are following:

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HOWELL: U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is being slammed for his criticism of New York City and, in a twist here, even some Democrats are finding rare reason to praise Donald Trump.

All of this came just two weeks before the first electoral test of the presidential election, the Iowa caucuses. CNN's chief political correspondent Dana Bash looks at whether Cruz's strategy backfired.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm going to be here so much in the next two weeks you're going to be sick of me.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Energized by a strong debate performance, Donald Trump rallied for votes in the first caucus state Trump style.

TRUMP: People say, oh, well, just say you want to do well in Iowa. Just say you want to do well. That way, at the end, if you come in second or third or fourth, you know, you can say, I didn't say I wanted to win Iowa.

BASH (voice-over): He is neck-and-neck in Iowa with Ted Cruz, a political death match that spilled onto the South Carolina debate stage. SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: Donald's mother was born in Scotland. She was naturalized. Now Donald --

TRUMP: But I was born here.

CRUZ: On the issue of citizenship, Donald --

TRUMP: Big difference.

CRUZ: -- on the issue of citizenship, Donald, I'm not going use your mother's birth against you.

TRUMP: OK, good, because it wouldn't work.

BASH (voice-over): Cruz tried to turn the tables on Trump, who has been questioning the Canadian-born Cruz's eligibility to be president.

CRUZ: Back in September, my friend, Donald, said that he had had his lawyers look at this from every which way. And there was no issue there.

Since September, the Constitution hasn't changed.

(LAUGHTER)

CRUZ: But the poll numbers have.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why are you raising this issue now?

TRUMP: Because now he's doing a little bit better.

BASH (voice-over): But Trump got the last word, going after Cruz for disparaging his, quote, "New York values," by invoking 9/11.

TRUMP: And it was with us for months, the smell, the air. And we rebuilt downtown Manhattan and everybody in the world watched. That was a very insulting statement that Ted made.

BASH (voice-over): For that, Trump got rare backup from New York Democrats, including New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio.

BILL DE BLASIO, MAYOR OF NEW YORK: Ted Cruz insulted the people of New York. He owes the people of New York an apology.

BASH (voice-over): Former New York senator, now Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tweeted, "Just this once, Trump's right. New Yorkers value hard work, diversity, tolerance, resilience and building better lives for our families."

The New York "Daily News" was more blunt, saying, "Drop Dead, Ted," with the Statue of Liberty giving him the one-finger salute.

This afternoon in South Carolina, Cruz responded.

CRUZ: I'm happy to apologize. I apologize to the millions of New Yorkers, who have been let down by liberal politicians in that state.

BASH (voice-over): As for Trump and Cruz, their scuffles would be standard fare had the competitors not been embracing only months ago.

CRUZ: Donald Trump has been tremendously beneficial to our campaign.

BASH: Why do you have this bromance?

TRUMP: Well, it is a little bit of a romance. I like him. He likes me. He's backed me 100 percent.

BASH (voice-over): That was then. This is now.

TRUMP: So I guess the bromance is over.

BASH: Do you see Ted Cruz as your biggest competition right now?

TRUMP: No, not really.

[04:35:00]

TRUMP: I mean we're going to see what happens. But certainly I don't see him as my biggest competition. I see him as competition. Certainly he's competition and others are competition.

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HOWELL: That was our chief political correspondent Dana Bash reporting for us.

In the U.S. city of Detroit, the conditions in some public schools have deteriorated to the point of danger. But for the time being, there isn't enough money to solve the obvious problems. Jean Casarez has this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): School conditions like this at Spain Elementary prompted Detroit Public School teachers to call a sickout several days this week.

Sixty-four or roughly two-thirds of the city's public schools were closed Monday, leaving thousands of students out of the classroom, sparking Michigan's division of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to launch an investigation into Spain Elementary School.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is our gym wing. We have been told that this portion of the building is off limits to us as of two months ago.

Our pool has been empty like this for about six years.

We've now been banned from our own playground. No gym and now no playground.

CASAREZ (voice-over): Twenty minutes away at Frank Cody High School, principal Latoya Hall-King told the national president of the American Teachers Federation, who flew in from Washington for the meeting, conditions at the school are intolerable.

From a rodent infestation, to girls' bathroom stalls having no doors; the technology classroom, without access to the Internet.

RANDI WENGARTON, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN FEDERATION OF TEACHERS: I see a lot of bad situations. This ranks about some of the worst.

CASAREZ (voice-over): Additionally, water leaks at the school, fixed but never sealed.

CASAREZ: I've been in this building about 40 minutes now and I am hoarse. I wasn't hoarse when I walked in.

Are you concerned about that for the children?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely. There's clearly environmental issues when you have leaks in buildings, when you have carpeting that has been leaked upon.

CASAREZ (voice-over): Darnell Earley, appointed one year ago by the governor to head emergency management for the district, says not all of Detroit's 97 public schools have these issues. And with an accumulated debt of $515 million, they have to make tough decisions on what schools get what improvements first.

DARNELL EARLEY, EMERGENCY MANAGER, DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Financially, we don't have the capacity. And decisions have been made for years about how best to use those dwindling resources. You have to really use a kind of a crystal ball to decide what's the best way to spend these few dollars.

CASAREZ (voice-over): At this Detroit Parent Network Forum Thursday night, teachers got support across the board but not everyone agreed on the tactic of the sickout.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe it's a bad thing for the children. I believe that their education, you know, should have really been really considered and thought about.

CASAREZ (voice-over): Although the community is divided on what to do about very real challenges and until the district can get money, the students will continue to bear the burden.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What I worry about is losing, losing, losing the teachers and also closing down the schools.

CASAREZ: State senator Jeff Hanson tells me that on Friday he and other lawmakers came here to Detroit to see the conditions for themselves. Legislation has been introduced in Lansing, controversial, he says, which ultimately would allow Detroit Public Schools to make the necessary repairs to schools where thousands of students attend each and every day.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HOWELL: Our Jean Casarez, reporting on a very difficult situation there in the city of Detroit.

A drug trial disaster has left one person brain dead in France and others hospitalized. Next, a doctor explains the importance of clinical trials and whether this could have an impact on them. Stay with us.

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[04:40:00]

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HOWELL: In France authorities have launched an investigation after a drug trial left a man brain dead. Five others are hospitalized. Health officials say dozens of volunteers have taken the drug. Phil Black has more on this story from London.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: "An accident of exceptional gravity," that's how the French health minister describes this drug trial, which looks to have destroyed the lives of a handful of its participants.

BLACK (voice-over): Around 90 people have taken the drug at the center of the trial but in different doses. Those who have reacted negatively to it were all part of the same group taking the same dose.

They started taking it repeatedly from January the 7th but it only took a few days before one of them developed negative symptoms. He is now clinically brain dead. Others followed as well, also suffering neurological symptoms. They're all men, aged between 28 and 49. Three of them may suffer permanent disabilities.

This was a phase I trial, which means it is the first time this drug is being tested on healthy human volunteers. The purpose of a phase I trial after animal testing is to determine if it is safe for human consumption.

The French health minister says the drug is designed to treat anxiety and motor disorders, but she denied very strongly reports in the French media that this is a cannabis-based drug.

MARISOL TOURAINE, FRENCH HEALTH MINISTER (through translator): This drug does not contain cannabis nor is it a product or a drug derived from cannabis. It acts on natural systems which fight pain, a system called the endocannabinoid system, but I must stress there is no cannabis in this drug.

BLACK (voice-over): So no cannabis but the bodily system this drug is designed to influence is named after cannabis because the receptors are the same ones which interact with compounds in the cannabis plant. Now the private lab, under contract with the French government,

Biotrial, says that all international guidelines were followed through this trial. So it is Bial, which is the Portuguese company developing the drug.

But the French government says that an event like this in a medical trial is unprecedented and it will work hard to investigate this, find the answers and, if necessary, determine who was responsible -- Phil Black, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: Dr. Joel Zivot is a professor of anesthesiology at Emory University. Earlier, my colleague, Natalie Allen, spoke with him about the potential impact on volunteers who sign up for these clinical trials.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JOEL ZIVOT, ANESTHESIOLOGIST: I think that by signing, what you're really just saying is that you acknowledge that you've had an opportunity to review the document. It's not really a function of giving away anything.

The experimenter and the volunteer continue to have a relationship. And the intention, again --

[04:30:00]

ZIVOT: -- is that information should be exchanged in an impartial way, again, so a person can understand.

And so by signing, it's not a setting-aside of rights, it's really just to acknowledge that they've seen the document, they understood and that they volunteered.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, in the world of social media and media being global and all-encompassing, do you think this could have some impact on future phase I trials, that anyone that might be a candidate for a volunteer might Google and go, "I'm not doing that"?

ZIVOT: Well, I hope not because clinical trials are important. And we need these trials and we need people to volunteer. We are indebted to volunteers.

Volunteers, especially in a phase I trial, who recognize and accept a certain degree of risk, to be able to allow themselves to be used to learn something very important. And one always hopes that a drug in its beginning stages ultimately becomes that drug that makes the difference in the life of someone in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: And that was Dr. Joel Zivot, a professor of anesthesiology at Emory University. Some wintry weather is blowing in to the Northeastern United States

and it could be set to cause a few travel problems. Our meteorologist Derek Van Dam is here with more on that -- Derek.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm skeptical to call this a full- blown nor'easter but it's close, George.

(WEATHER REPORT)

VAN DAM: Take a look at this for all you Formula 1 fans out there. One of the Formula 1 car drivers actually took to the skies, had his vehicle lifted by helicopter into some of those high elevation slopes. And take a look at this.

He decided, George, that he would take it for a spin down some of the ski hills there. The racecourses were actually marked by ski gates. He said it was extremely slippery and they had to have specialized snow chains around the tires so he wouldn't veer out of control.

HOWELL: Good luck with that.

Derek Van Dam, very cool. Thank you, thank you so much.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. And it was 25 years ago, we take an introspective look back at the impact of the first Gulf War. Stay with us.

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HOWELL (voice-over): The U.S. Department of Defense released this video that you see there. An explosion, which it claims shows an ISIS cache depot in Mosul, Iraq, getting bombed by the U.S. earlier this month.

Pentagon officials say that what you see there is cash flowing in the air, fluttering all about. They did not say exactly how much money, though, was there in currency but described it as millions in money in currency. The strike was intended to deprive ISIS of some of its massive resources.

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HOWELL: This weekend marks 25 years since the start of the Persian Gulf War. Apart from the geopolitical fallout of that conflict, it was a major turning point in media coverage from conflict zones. CNN led that coverage, reporting from the front lines and now the journalists who were there reflect on the historic events.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETER ARNETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you're still with us, you can hear the bombs now there, hitting the center of the city.

TOM JOHNSON, FORMER CNN PRESIDENT: I went to Ted Turner's office and I said, Ted, for us to own this story in the event of actual war, we need to spend perhaps $5 million to $35 million more in expenses than we're authorized to spend in our budget.

I said, "How much am I authorized to spend?"

I'll never forget his answer.

He looked back at me and said -- and these are his exact words, "You spend whatever you think it takes, pal."

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INGRID FORMANEK, CNN PRODUCER: It was a very surreal scene because Iraq had never had that much press in there before. It was a very repressive regime and, for the first time, they allowed a large number of media to come in and we managed to establish a four-wire, which is a very simple device. It's basically like having two open phone lines installed.

The Iraqis gave us permission, after a lot of hard work and getting -- trying to get permissions and then bypass a telephone exchange, which was one of the first things that was bombed the first night of the war.

So while all the phones in Iraq went out, we had the four-wire which enabled us to broadcast that first night of the war.

JOHN HOLLIMAN, FORMER CNN CORRESPONDENT: Our camera man, Mark Biello, has just come to the window.

Mark, you've been taking pictures of all this.

What does it look like through your viewfinder?

MARK BIELLO, CNN SENIOR PHOTOJOURNALIST: On the other side of the hotel, we have some of the buildings that have incredible --

(CROSSTALK)

BIELLO: -- damage and also a lot of anti-aircraft battery.

I was terrified. I mean, I thought this was at -- fortunately, for all the accuracy of the technology of the weapons, we did survive. The Al Rashid (ph) was not taken out. But we were certainly in harm's way.

RICH BROOKS, CNN SENIOR PHOTOJOURNALIST: It was eye-opening to me because had I traveled the region quite a bit before that, covering the first Gulf War between Iran and Iraq.

And so to go there and see suddenly the United States mobilizing to go to war over a very small country was quite something to see. After the first night of the Gulf War, everyone around the world knew who CNN was.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: We will have more reflections from Iraq next hour, here on CNN NEWSROOM. And we thank you for joining this hour. I'm George Howell at CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. I'll be back after the break with more news from around the world. Thank you for watching CNN, the world's news leader.