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Poll: Tight Competition for Both Parties Ahead of Iowa Caucuses; Zika Virus Now Active in 24 Countries; Turkey to Russian Ambassador: Russian Jet Violated Turkey's Airspace Again; Pluto Discovered to Have More Frozen Water than Previously Thought; SAG Award Winners. Aired 12-12:30a ET

Aired January 31, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:11] NATALIE ALLEN, ANCHOR: The last major polls before the Iowa causes is out and it shows a tight competition for both parties as the candidates look to sway voters before Monday's caucuses.

Researchers try to create a vaccine for the Zika virus before the disease spreads to even more countries.

And in Turkey, accusations that another Russian war plane entered its airspace. We'll let you know what Russia is saying today.

It's all ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM. Thank you for joining us. We're live in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.

We begin in this state, everyone one is watching this time of year and that is Iowa, where the first votes for the U.S presidential nomination process will be cast Monday. The contenders for the White House are taking advantage, of course, of every last second to move voters and fend down across the state in the remaining hours before Monday's critical caucuses.

And we're getting new numbers for one the most respective polls in presidential politics. The polls from Bloomberg Politics and the Des Moines Register newspaper gives Republican Donald Trump a five-point lead over Ted Cruz. Marco Rubio is third with 15 percent. Ben Carson is 4. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton holds a three-point lead over Bernie Sanders. That's within the margin of error, meaning they are statistically tied.

The numbers indicate how important Iowa is right now to the U.S. presidential election. Ten republicans and all three democratic candidates had been crisscrossing the state ahead of Monday's caucuses.

And Ms. Karen Kafa reports, there's one name that keeps coming up in many of their speeches.

KAREN KAFA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: With very little time remaining until the Iowa causes, candidates are stumping all over the states, Saturday, hoping to make a final push. In its first rally in Iowa this weekend, Donald Trump spoke to a crowd in Dubuque. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have a chance to do something so great. Make America great again. All these hats, make America great Again. We're losing our trade. We're losing with Obama Care.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAFA: But even before Trump took the stage, he was the topic during several of his counterpart's rally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As a result of the disastrous citizen's united Supreme Court decision, as we think right now, this moment on your television sets, billionaires are trying to buy elections.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAFA: Jeb Bush also took shot at Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You're not going to win by insulting the disabled. You're not going to win by insulting women. You're not going to win by saying POWs. We're losers because they got caught. Shame on Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAFA: But the business mogul wasn't the only candidate getting attached. Marco Rubio (inaudible) and toward Hillary Clinton.

(BEGINVIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is a reason why Hillary Clinton spends more and her Super PACs spend more time attacking me than any other republican, because they don't want to run against me, but I can't wait to run against her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAFA: And while the attacks on Clinton and the e-mail controversy continues to hunt around the campaign trail, she's keeping her focus elsewhere.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If the Republicans want to use this for political purposes, that's their decision, but I'm going to keep taking about what the voters in Iowa talked to me about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAFA: In Des Moines, Iowa, I'm Karen Kafa.

ALLEN: The caucus process used by almost one dozen states can be difficult to understand for outsiders and even for those actually involved. The Iowa caucuses are a starting point that can make or break the campaign in terms of momentum.

CNN politics reporter, Chris Moody explains.

CHRIS MOODY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Mitt Romney, 23 percent. Purple is for (inaudible) city, impressive nature.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Barrack Obama, the senator from Illinois, the junior senator from Illinois has won the Iowa caucuses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOODY: Every four years, we hear all about the Iowa caucuses. It's a huge deal. It's all over the news. But what does it actually mean to win? Probably not what you think. On the night of the causes, Iowa officials from both parties count the votes and announce to the media who got the most, and we report that they won.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, very good. Third time in (inaudible).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Third time (inaudible). Excellent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOODY: But it's important to know what winning really means. You might assume that the person that wins the Iowa caucuses gets the most delegates at the convention. Not so. The Iowa caucuses are really just a straw poll. They have to bearing on delegate selection.

By the time that Iowa parties actually select their delegates, it's much later in the process. Sometimes, the whole primaries are already over. So, why do we care so much? There is actually a reason. The Iowa caucuses are the first electoral contest on the calendar, so it gives us an initial look at the state of the race, and winning first is a great place to start.

[00:05:00] There is some controversy though. Despite all the attention that caucuses receive, not a lot of Iowans actually participate, and I think there's a reason for that. Caucusing actually takes several hours and they're usually held after work hours. But what about the people that can't make it to the caucus? Well, they can't participate. Working a shift on caucus night? Can't caucus. Disabled, can't leave the house? Can't caucus. Just kind of lazy and don't want to leave the house because it's freezing in Iowa in the middle of winter? Can't be blamed, also can't caucus though. Now, supporters say that the process is there because it's a community event. It's people in your small town talking about politics and really engaging. And in that sense, it's pretty cool. But now, when you're watching the caucus results in February, you'll really know what we mean when we say a candidate has won.

ALLEN: And of course, you could watch the results right here on CNN.

Well, turning to other news now. The Zika virus is now active in now active in 24 countries. Its rapid spread had led to growing concerns about the potential for a global pandemic. The mosquito born virus has been linked to a neurological birth disorder called microcephaly.

Health officials warn pregnant women against traveling to affected areas, but that's ultimately the root (ph) point if the spread of the virus cannot be float (ph). Researchers are hard at work to create a vaccine but no cure or even treatment currently exists.

The first reported cases of the Zika outbreak occurred in Brazil and it's now the country being hit worst by the disease.

Shasta Darlington reports from Ground Zero.

SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The epicenter for the Zika virus pandemic is right here in the Brazil but the crisis is increasingly international. President Dilma Rousseff spoke by phone to President Barrack Obama on Friday and they agreed to work together to try and combat the mosquito that's spreading the virus

Aides Aegypti, they said they could do research together and really try and speed up the development of a vaccine. That's of course because there isn't one. There isn't a cure right now. Here in Brazil, since the virus was detected in the first half of last year, that means that more than 4000 cases of babies born with microcephaly have been reported. These are babies with small heads and underdeveloped brain. This has been linked to the Zika virus. Now, president Dilma Rousseff says, more needs to be done and quickly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DILMA ROUSSEFF, BRAZIL PRESIDENT (Through Translation): We are loosing a battle against the mosquito. As long as the mosquito keeps reproducing, each and every one of us is loosing the battle against the mosquito, so we have to mobilize so we do not lose this battle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DARLINGTON: Keeping track of Zika is difficult. It's often asymptomatic. Brazilian health officials say that up to a 1.5 million people have already been affected. They've dedicated 200,000 soldiers and health workers to going door to door, trying to eradicate the pools of water where the mosquitoes breed.

In most cases, the mosquitoes breed inside people's homes. So, getting rid of that plant water, getting rid of the tanks of water where the drinking water is stored. They are also fumigating. The problem is they really had a mixed success so far. It's the same mosquito that spreads the dengue fever.

And last year, there were record number of cases in Brazil of dengue fever with the Olympics just six months away here in Rio de Janeiro. This is gaining a lot of urgency. Officials here say they'll step up efforts as the games get closer, visiting the venues on a daily basis, making sure that any contact with mosquitoes is minimized. They are also betting on the weather.

The games are going to come in august. That will be smacked up in the middle of the winter right here in the southern hemisphere, and that the mosquito population will naturally drop off.

Shasta Darlington, CNN Rio de Janeiro.

ALLEN: The world's health community has been discussing the next steps for dealing with the Zika virus.

Our Nic Robertson spoke with the World Health Organization assistant director general about the global response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLI)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: How close are we to understanding the link between Zika and mircocephaly?

BRUCE AYLWARD, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR-GENERAL, WHO: So, there's different kinds of studies trying to address that. It could be six months. It could nine months. But everyday, there's more and more data.

ROBERTSON: Is there enough evidence right now to say people should be concerned and worried in these affected countries by getting pregnant?

AYLWARD: The people should be concerned that Zika may have effects beyond what we originally thought, a cerebro (ph) illness, and most people may not even notice and a bit of a rash. And given that concern, we should take the right precautions to make sure that you, number one, reduce the mosquito population around you. That can be done pretty quickly. And then reduce your probability of getting infected.

ROBERTSON: How much is that level of doubt that remains about the link? I mean, if we're looking at, is it 1 percent of doubt, 2 percent, 5?

AYLWARD: Yeah. I would say there -- you know, this is an issue of opinion at this point because you definitely can't prove causation. So, what you're trying to do is rule out all the other possibility.

[00:10:04] ROBERTSON: Is Zika going to travel to the United States, to Southeast Asia, to Europe?

AYLWARD: Now, the question of is the virus going to move with the mosquito? You have to act as though it would and so you've got to get your surveillance in placed in these places to see when it comes. Your surveillance also for neurologic issues and begin educating your population about keeping a mosquito populations down. You should do that anyway.

Can I tell you 100 percent the virus is going to be there? I will do that and then the virus will make me look stupid by not showing off there. But our assumption has to be, yes, it will follow the movement. Because that's why it's been doing over the last three months.

ROBERTSON: How did it move so quickly?

AYLWARD: It hasn't moved in a lightning speed. Now once it's gotten into the Americas, it has move from Brazil up through now to part of Mexico.

ROBERTSON: Spreading explosively.

AYLWARD: Now it's moving fast there and that is ..

ROBERTSON: How did the ...

AYLWARD: ... because of the movement of people, movement in mosquitoes across land areas which are more much more, you know, the contiguous, so it's going move faster than over those huge tracts.

ROBERTSON: But you're giving me advice in a timely fashion. Is enough being done now?

AYLWARD: Well, you know, this is really tough because remember Zika and well the Aedes (ph) virus is carried by mosquito that breeds in stagnant water and even walk or any country or you got a tire lying there. You got a bucket lying there. They all collect water and trying to get everybody to get out there and empty those things or actually apply test that's going to end.

ROBERTSON: You need the help of population. You need governments to understand together, the populations aware

AYLWARD: And Brazil, call the state of emergency in November, not knowing if this was causation or not, but just saying there are such a horrible effect if we are wrong, would be tragic. We have got to over compensate.

ROBERTSON: And the next solution is vaccines. What -- where are we on the vaccine tract?

AYLWARD: The goal now is to look at what everybody's got on the shelf. What they have been doing in a very quick to get in into the in promising into trials and ...

ROBERTSON: And WHO can help accelerate that.

AYLWARD: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, because, so, part of our job just like on Ebola is getting the international community together. Getting concerns as picking out what are the best possible candidates, getting the money behind that to trial designs and moving those forward and that is exactly the rule of this.

ROBERTSON: And timeframe from where we're at today to a vaccine? Do you think?

AYLWARD: Probably the earliest (ph) with them. Again, we heard a few different things, we get probably have something in the phase one trial in four to six months and then probably if something available in a year.

ROBERTSON: The Olympics are coming up this summer in Brazil, what's WHO's advice to people, and want to go watch the Olympics.

AYLWARD: Enjoy the Olympics, make sure you intake the precautions not to get bitten by mosquitoes because you might get dengue which is an awful disease to get and Zika might do things that we don't fully understand yet.

And understanding what you are at risk of potentially and then you make your personal decisions, right. But you can manage part of that risk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: We will continue to follow developments with the spread of the virus here on CNN.

Turkey summons the Russian Ambassador after it says a Russian jet violated its airspace again.

Also had here, Pluto is full of surprises the latest discovery from the dwarf planet, also coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:15:24] ALLEN: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. There is some encouraging signs from the Syrian peace talks in Geneva. The main opposition group now says it plans to participate in negotiations with the U.N. special envoy. They have been holding out insisting that government forces stop attacking civilians. The opposition is pushing for tangible signs a peace on the ground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SALAH AI-MUSATA, HIGH NEGOTIATIONS COMMITTEE SPOKESMAN: We are ready. We are here to make this a success. We are ready to start negotiation but at least we should see something, you know, on ground there in Syria. We should really stop these massacres against our people. So, please help us, you know, save our children. Save the remaining children of Syria. Then, you know, we are willing to do anything that really put an end this war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: The Geneva meetings mark the first time in two years. The war inside have set down for talks. The desperation in Syria and other places is of course driving another deadly phenomenon, the migration crisis in Europe.

Turkish authorities say 33 people including five children died trying to make the dangerous trip across the Aegean Sea to Greece. Seventy five others were rescued. The boat was carrying migrants from Syria, Myanmar and Afghanistan.

Meantime, the Italian coast guard reported rescuing more than 200 migrants from two small boats in the Mediterranean. Even when they make it to Europe, refugees and other migrants of course, face more difficulties as has been well documented.

Earlier, we spoke with John Dalhuisen from Amnesty International. He describes a blink and uncertain time ahead for migrants.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN DALHUISEN, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: The last week has been a very catastrophic week for refugees across Europe and fairly grim for the prospects of Europe itself moving forward. The essence of the European's response the date has been being predicated on keeping refuges out and we've seen those moves accelerating. Conversations talking going forward that effectively about transforming Greece into a pen for a holding pen for European refugees deals with Turkey that are going to involve returning migrants to Turkey.

And nationally every single government now as you just described Denmark in a race to the button to make themselves as unattractive to refugees as possible. And I think as often in Europe and at the E.U. if its member states will after exhausting every single opportunity to do the wrong thing may well have to find its way to doing the right thing if it's going to stay together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Well, Turkey is condemning what it calls a violation of its airspace by a Russian war plane. The foreign ministry says, the jet was warned in both English and Russian before it cross into Turkish airspace from Syria Friday.

Russia denies the allegations calling them unfounded propaganda. Turkey's military you may ever remember shot down a Russian plane in November for entering its airspace killing one crew member. Turkish official say the plane ignored several warnings acclaim Russia continues to dispute.

Well, faraway form earth, we have some news about Pluto. It is proving to be full of surprises the little planet that's almost a planet. Scientist have just discovered that the dwarf planet has way more frozen water than originally thought. A map from NASA's New Horizon spacecraft shows the Pluto is coded with a large amount of ice. These images were taken about 108,000 kilometers above the planet since New Horizon's fly-by in July 2015, Pluto's new discoveries like its icy surface and mysterious moon has marbled ice.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: A planet that keeps on giving.

ALLEN: Yeah, and the little -- and more calling a dwarf at the same time, it's just so mean. All right, with Derek Van Dam is here with the -- he's watching earth ... VAN DAM: Right.

ALLEN: He was cool or not cool.

VAN DAM: Right, that's true. That's -- we're going to focus on in the northern hemisphere. This time Natalie and we continue to talk about storm system that's impacted the United Kingdom. The United of U.K. met office has called it storm Gertrude that brought winds in excessive 200 kilometers per hour in some of the highland areas of Scotland. Take a look at these images coming from that particular the region and well, yeah, this one's for you Natalie. It's just dog on windy in that area.

Unreal, but it is good see that at least some of us can get outside and enjoy it, right? Like this precious little puppy, but let's talk about what lies ahead because it was storm Gertrude that brought that strong winds on Friday and into Saturday for the United Kingdom.

[00:20:06] But, as we head into Sunday night and Monday, that has another round of extremely strong winds. Severe gales expected. Look at our forecast wind gust for Edinburgh and into the Dublin Region in excessive 80 kilometers per hour, quite easily. Even London could potentially experience 70 to 80 kilometer per hour wind gust as well.

So this means this is going to cause travel transportation issues. We also have potential have done, power lines meaning lost of electricity, something that we had to monitor in closely as we head into the new work week. Now associated with this lined up of storm system is several rounds of heavier rain showers that continue to move through Ireland and into the northern sections of England. Even some snow again on the higher elevations and especially near Scotland.

And this is the setup as we head into Sunday and Monday. We're going to bring in a lot of warmth ahead of this particular storm. But there is just so much wind associated with this deep cyclone that's moving off the coast of the Atlantic. Just with tropical or excuse me a storm Gertrude, we had winds again in excessive 200 kilometers per hour.

There is the new storm, storm Henry moving in and you can see some of the precipitation that's going to be associated with this particular storm system as well.

I want to leave you with this. We all like selfies, right? This is the decade of selfie. Well, take a look at what the NASA's Mars Curiosity Rover did, took a selfie from space, that's from the Mojave site. It spent nearly 900 marching days on the planet. Wasn't cool is that ....

ALLEN: And then how did he do that? It does it -- it doesn't even have an arms ticking out.

VAN DAM: Well, they -- a lot of people ask that on internet websites and it had to do with the fact that the armor is just not positioned with the mosaic.

ALLEN: OK. And we got it, thanks. It's scary.

Up next here, we look at the winners of the Screen Actors Guild award.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALLEN: The Screen Actors Guild awards or SAG are often seen as an indication of who may take home the academy award, the Oscar.

And this might be the year for Oscar nominee Leonardo DiCaprio. On Saturday, DiCaprio won the SAG for best lead actor for his role in "The Revenant". Another Academy Award nominee Brie Larson, won the SAG for her performance in the film "Room". And the top SAG award went to the cast of "Spotlight" which is nominated for an Oscar for best picture.

All right, we are desperately tick of things for the Hollywood award season and Kim Serafin joins us, from Hollywood the Senior Editor of "In Touch Weekly". Hi there Kim.

KIM SERAFIN, SENIOR EDITOR, "IN TOUCH WEEKLY": Hi. How you doing?

ALLEN: I'm good, thank you. Thanks for being with us. So this was the Screen Actors Guild, well after that, we've had the Golden Globes. We have Oscars to come to remind us those person just live normal lives. What the Screen Actors Guild awards are really about?

SERAFIN: Yeah, this is award season here in Los Angeles, here in Hollywood, all leading up of course to the Oscar's. But this is the Screen Actors Guild award. This is voted on by the actors.

So only awards are about actors, it's not about production design or sound or anything like that. It's all about the acting awards. But a lot of people look to the Screen Actors Guild awards because the actors are the largest voting branch for the academy, for the Oscars. So a lot of times, whoever wins the Screen Actors Guild, it really predicts who will win in Oscars.

ALLEN: So let's talk about the fact that the Oscars criticized for lack of diversity. But these awards -- the first award actually handed out, went to an African American woman.

[00:25:10] SERAFIN: Yeah, very interesting because clearly if anyone is paying attention know that the Oscars have gotten a lot of attention because of the lack of diversity but in very start contrast at the SAG awards, it was a very diverse show.

In fact Idris Elba who won two SAG awards got up in at one point when he was introducing Beasts of No Nation, he said, "Welcome to diverse T.V", because you did have a lot of nominees, a lot of winners. Uzo Aduba for "Orange is the New Black", Viola Davis one for "How to Get Away with Murder", Idris Elba as I mentioned won two awards.

He won from Beasts of No Nation. A lot of people thought he should have been nominated for an Oscar for Beasts of No Nation he was not. And in fact his name is the one of the names that comes up when people say "Where was his name?" When we're looking at all of these 20 white actors that were nominated.

ALLEN: Right.

SERAFIN: So a very different story we're looking at when you look at the Screen Actors Guild awards.

ALLEN: Well let's talk about two of the big winners were for best actor and best actress.

SERAFIN: I think everyone was looking to see who would win best actor. It was Leonardo DiCaprio for "The Revenant". I think this pretty much says that he is a luck for an Oscar. He did win the Golden Globe, he won the Critics Choice Award.

I mean, Leonardo DiCaprio I think clearly it is someone who deserves an Oscar. This is his ninth SAG award nomination but his first win. So it's kind of his time, it his year for sure.

ALLEN: Right. And it might as will be may be Brie Larson's year as well.

SERAFIN: Yeah. Brie Larson who won for Room and now of course Jennifer Lawrence is probably her main competition when you come to the Oscar. But Jennifer Lawrence for Joy could not get a SAG nomination.

ALLEN: Yeah.

SERAFIN: So very interesting. Brie Larson I think still probably is the frontrunner for an Oscar but very interesting because Jennifer Lawrence was not nominated for SAG Awards so with her in the mix in the Oscar's that's going to throw everything into turmoil.

So we don't know for sure who will win. It's not as clear cut as Leonardo DiCaprio is for The Revenant.

ALLEN: Right. That we'll have a big -- a drum roll for a best actress when we get to the Oscar's perhaps.

And they almost hand down reward for Ensemble Casts for comedy and film and it's interesting that two films really were really good this year for Ensemble Cast but one about brave journalist one.

SERAFIN: Yes Spotlight was the winner of the SAG Awards for Ensemble Cast that's what they vote in the Screen Actors Guild Awards but this often a predictor of who will win best picture from the Oscar's.

ALLEN: A glowing night and a diverse night for Hollywood and of course beautiful dresses on the red carpet as well.

As always, Kim Serafin been watching it for us. Thank you so much Kim.

SERAFIN: Great thanks so much.

ALLEN: And thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen. Top stories are right after this.

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