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China Has Deployed Surface-to-Air Missiles on Disputed Island; U.S. Flies Fighter Jets in Show of Solidarity with South Korea; Barack Obama Vows to Nominate Supreme Court Successor; SC Polls Show Trump with Commanding Lead; Uncertainty in the Oil Market; Court Orders Apple to Unlock iPhone; Pope Francis in Mexico. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired February 17, 2016 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:01] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody. Great to have you with us. We'd like to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world; I'm John Vause.

ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: and I'm Isha Sesay. This is "NEWSROOM" L.A. A lot to get to this hour, with all the news from a busy and, at times, nasty day in U.S. politics.

VAUSE: But first, officials at the Pentagon, as well as from Taiwan, tells CNN China has deployed surface-to-air missiles on a disputed island in the South China Sea. Senior International Correspondent, Ivan Watson, live this hour in Hong Kong with late details. Ivan?

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT, via satellite: John, that's right. So let's go to this area. These are the Paracels Islands in the South China Sea. There are disputes over who owns them, between Vietnam, China, even Taiwan, and the island we're talking about is Woody Island here. Taiwan tells us that China has deployed surface-to-air missiles. China has had a military presence here for more than a half century and yet some are interpreting this as quite a provocation; and why? Because as we speak, President Obama has been hosting leaders of the 12 nation ASEAN Group, those are Southeast Asian Nations, in California.

The White House has been really pushing a message hard, it's been arguing for all countries in the region to follow international norms, no matter how large or small and arguing against militarization of disputed islands in this region. Of particular concern here is another set of islands in an archipelago here, the Spratley Islands, which both China and the Philippines claim.

In particular, the U.S. and some of these smaller countries in the region have been looking with concern at really ambitious man-made island projects here that China has been making out. Let's take a close-up on one of these islands. This is a before shot of what was basically a reef, fiery-cross, and this was after China worked on it. Look at it! They built an entire island, with an airstrip as well, with concerns that China could try to land fighter planes or surface- to-air missiles on places like this that are claimed by much smaller, poorer countries like the Philippines.

Now China defends its actions in this region, saying this is purely a matter of self-defense, that it's trying to expand efforts to help in the case of medical emergencies or fisheries, and insisting that this will not affect international shipping or navigation. John?

VAUSE: Ivan, thank you. Ivan Watson live this hour in Hong Kong.

SESAY: And this just in to us here at CNN, the U.S. has flown four fighter jets at low altitude near Osan, South Korea, south of the capitol, Seoul. U.S. officials say it showed the strength of the American/South Korean alliance after North Korea's rocket launch of February 7th.

Turning to U.S. politics now, and there is a showdown brewing in the U.S. over the nation's highest court. President Barack Obama vows to nominate a successor to the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia despite Republican objections.

VAUSE: The President really laying down the gauntlet here. Scalia died over the weekend. Mr. Obama says the Constitution is clear about what happens next. Justice Correspondent, Pamela Brown has details.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This will be the opportunity for Senators to do their job. Your job doesn't stop until you're voted out. I intend to do my job between now and January 20th of 2017 and I expect them to do their job as well.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tonight President Obama is sending a small message to Senate Republicans: he will appoint a replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia, no matter what.

OBAMA: I am going to present somebody who, indisputably, is qualified for the seat and any fair-minded person, even somebody who disagreed with my politics, would say would serve with honor and integrity on the court.

BROWN: Senate Republicans are vowing to block any nominee until a new president is in office. Presidential Candidate Marco Rubio weighed in from the campaign trail today.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our next president is going to choose, not just a replacement for Justice Scalia, but at least two other Supreme Court Justices, possibly. We know this because at least three of the justices are near 80 years of age. So we know that eventually they'll have to retire or something will happen.

BROWN: Republican Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, Chuck Grassley, told Radio Iowa he has not made up his mind about whether there will be confirmation hearings for any potential candidate.

SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IA), CHAIRMAN, SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE, via telephone: I would wait until the nominee was made before I would make any decisions. In other words, take it a step at a time.

BROWN: Democratic leaders came out in full force to defend the President's [00:05:01] position. Minority Leader, Harry Reid, warned in a scathing Op-Ed, Republicans risk being "remembered as the most nakedly partisan, obstructionist and irresponsible majority in history."

Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton also chimed in firing off 11 tweets, calling any vow to block President Obama's nominee as "disgraceful."

The White House is expected to announce a nominee within a month.

OBAMA: I intend to nominate somebody, to present them to the American people, to present them to the Senate. I expect them to hold hearings. I expect there to be a vote.

Pamela Brown, CNN, Washington

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Well, joining us now for more on the U.S. Supreme Court showdown is Christina Bellantoni, the Assistant Managing Editor for Politics at the L.A. Times.

SESAY: And, Conservative Radio Host and Political Analyst Mike Slater, in San Diego, California. Welcome to you both.

Mike, to start with you, I want to pick up on what the President said earlier, on Tuesday, that he found it somewhat amusing that many Republicans considered themselves to be strict, in terms of the Constitution, until it comes to this point, and now they're saying he doesn't have the right, the legal right to go forward and appoint a successor to Scalia. How do you respond to that charge of, if you will, double speak?

MIKE SLATER, POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, well, I think everyone is saying the President absolutely has the right with Article II Section II of the Constitution to nominate someone, but by the same token the Senate absolutely has the right to not confirm that person. The Senate has the right to advise and consent, not advise and rubber stamp. If you go back to Reagan's last hear in 1987, it was his third nominee, Kennedy, who actually got appointed by the democratic senate. (Inaudible) was shot down. The second person never quite even made it to a senate vote and it was the third person, the first two were very conservative, the third was more moderate. That's the point of checks and balances, especially when you have a split party like this. So this isn't a -- so this grid lock is not a bug of the Constitution. It's the feature of it, it's the point of it; and the President would do wise to appoint a more moderate justice so that maybe the Republicans would confirm him.

VAUSE: Oh, they're not going to confirm anybody Obama nominates, we all know that but that's a nice thought. Christina, although one thing that is interesting it does seem that the Republicans are walking back from the Mitch McConnell's sort of blatant no nomination statement. They're now saying, well, put somebody up and we'll consider it. Is that because the optics here of being sort of obstructionist is not working for them? CHRISTINA BELLANTONI, ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR FOR POLITICS, "L.A. TIMES": I don't think anybody is really worried about the optics. I think that they know that the President is going to nominate somebody and is going to go through the mechanics of putting forth a person who he says is eminently qualified to be a supreme court justice. So they will have to go through it. What's so interesting to me, is it finally shines a spotlight on Congress at a time when they actually were not going to get any attention at all. You know, the presidential campaign is in full force. They are in the backburner; so now it shines not just a spotlight on the people serving in it, but all of those Senate races, in all of these swing states that are going to matter. All year long those people are now going to see how they would vote on whoever he does nominate.

SESAY: And Mike, to that point about a splintering, if you will, in the Republican Party among those -- especially those republicans who have to defend senate seats, I mean, how do you see this going, in terms of the breaking of the ranks?

SLATER: Well, this is the seminal issue. This is the, and rightfully so, this has now become the most important issue in this election. The next president is going to nominate, and Marco Rubio said two, now maybe even four justices. This is incredibly important. I would say, speaking as a conservative, if the Republicans do not hold strong on this and hold off and do not nominate the president's point, then they're not worth anything anymore. This is their job, to hold strong, and at least hold the President to a moderate choice, but you are not there to rubber stamp the President's extreme nominations which would just cement his progressive legacy even more, for generations. So the Republicans need to stand strong on this. I don't think they'll be viewed as an obstructionist by conservatives and probably not even by moderates, if they're doing the right thing for the right reasons. I think they are.

BELLANTONI: There are far fewer moderates in the Senate anyway. You used to have six, seven people that could form coalitions and maybe come together and do deal making or you knew they would be the swing votes, but the Republican class in the Senate right now is a more conservative class. That was one of the ways they were able to take over.

VAUSE: Why is it that the Supreme Court is so much more important than democrats? They seem to take this so much more seriously.

BELLANTONI: I think it's equally important. The Republicans are in power. They're exercising. They did win the election. This is something they're able to do. It is a check and balance system, it's just a matter of how much time goes before one person --

VAUSE: Okay, well, this is being a very big issue on the campaign trail and for the Republicans, the closer we get to South Carolina, it seems, the nastier the attacks are getting. Let's listen to some of them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But you know, Ted holds up the Bible and then he lies about so many things. And I mean, these are lies. These aren't like, oh, maybe he is -- what he did to Carson was a total lie.

[00:10:02] RUBIO: So I think this is very disturbing, when you have a candidate that now, on a regular basis, just makes things up, especially in this era, where everything is out there and everything is seen and instantly reacted to. You can't get away with that stuff.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: People will be forgiven this election season, for thinking at times it seemed like a bit of a circus. I can't imagine why anyone would think that.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I mean, it's not what he says. It's just the fact that he says it louder and louder and you just have to keep talking through it. It's not a skill set I ever envisioned being necessary to aspire to the presidency of the United States, but I've gotten better at it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And that was very disturbing, but, Mike, I know that South Carolina politics, they're pretty tough. People get bloodied in South Carolina quite often, in the political sphere, but what's going on here because this just seems to be a free for all right now?

SLATER: Well, everyone is getting desperate here is what's going on, but I will contend that Trump is doing the best at this; he's always the best at this. Now, is this the -- Jeb sort of said, this isn't the skill set I think you need to be a good president, but Trump is by far the best campaigner. He's putting every other candidate in what I call a double-bind. It's a darned if you do, darned if you don't moment. Jeb is a great example. From the beginning Trump has called Jeb what? Low energy. So Jeb's in a double-bind. If he stays low energy he's going to lose and if he tries to get riled up and attack Trump, then Trump does what he did at the last debate and says, oh, look at tough guy Jeb over here. Tough guy Jeb acting like a big hotshot. so Jeb's like in this stuck position, like, what do I do? I don't know how to get out of this. And Trump's been able to put every candidate in this double-bind and I think that's why Trump will come out ahead in this.

BELLANTONI: The politicians are responding to the voters here, in some ways. The voters are very angry. We had -- the "L.A. Times" reported today some voters that are supporting Donald Trump said they are supporting Donald Trump because it's like giving the middle finger -

VAUSE: Yes.

BELLANTONI: -- to someone. It's a very visceral, angry reaction, not just on the Republican side -

VAUSE: This is sort of like W. Bush's campaign back in 2004. He was sort of the guy who was giving the middle finger to the establishment but now Donald Trump's middle finger is much bigger -

BELLANTONI: And louder.

VAUSE: -- and louder.

SESAY: And let me ask you this, we've seen, in this attempt to jockey for position - so Cruz has taken a very particular line with Donald Trump, especially on his position with abortion and Planned Parenthood. Donald Trump has pushed back saying my position has evolved, like Reagan's.

BELLANTONI: Right.

SESAY: Is that good enough for the folks of South Carolina, the evangelicals?

BELLANTONI: You know, the early South Carolina polls that we've seen ahead of Saturday's voting are that Trump still holds a commanding lead and Jeb Bush, for all of his strengths that he's shown in the debate, he's doing a little better, he's got more energy, he's got his brother out there for him, he still remains at the bottom of that pack. So, so far you're really seeing a Teflon-like sort of shield around Donald Trump that is not affecting things. But this is only the third contest, we have a long way to go. I've still have my fingers crossed for that June 7th California primary --

VAUSE: Hey, Mike, one thing I'm curious about. We had the President actually going out to Donald Trump today. He's saying that he will not be the next president of the United States. This was a real example of Barack Obama punching down, if you like, but was this a good day, if you like, for Donald Trump to have the President going after him like this?

SLATER: Well, Trump's interesting and his supporters are interesting too. The more you go after Trump the more the Trump supporters defend their support of Trump. So that will only make Trump stronger.

One thing that's interesting in South Carolina is they have open primaries. So you don't need to register with a party in order to vote for either of the two parties. One of the most interesting things about the last debate is when Trump attacked George W. Bush for 9/11. I was with about 50 other Republicans when that happened, and they viscerally were angry at that. They really were offended that Trump blamed W. for 9/11, but what's interesting about that is it wasn't for Republicans, that comment, because the Trump supporters, like I said, are always going to support Trump no matter what he says. He even said that a couple weeks ago, remember? He said, I could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and people would still support me. I think he's right.

VAUSE: Yes.

SLATER: That comment about 9/11 was for Independents, and maybe even some Democrats who don't like the Iraq War and who don't like W. They, in South Carolina, can vote in the Republican Primary for Trump. I think he's just gaining support with comments like that. SESAY: Christina, weigh in on that, the President taking on Trump, so to speak, today.

BELLANTONI: They've had a feud for a while. It started with, sort of, the President's -- where he was born. I think the President is very genuinely irritated with Donald Trump and he wanted to make a point. You know, this is not something I want to engage in because this guy is not going to be president, but the Democrats like to say that the Republicans are parroting Trump lines. That's not necessarily true but what you've seen is a real shift of the rhetoric of Trump has been adopted in this race and that's something that they're going to have to contend with a general election.

SESAY: So much to get through.

VAUSE: It's three days until South Carolina, I think -

SESAY: Christina Bellantoni, it's going to get nasty and let's face it, all political watchers just love it, to be honest.

[00:15:04] VAUSE: Christina and Mike -

SESAY: Thank you.

VAUSE: -- thank you both.

SESAY: Thank you so much for the insight and perspective.

SLATER: Thank you.

VAUSE: Okay; so with the South Carolina Republican Primary just days away, Donald Trump is holding a broad 16-point lead over second place rival Ted Cruz. A new CNN/ORT poll finds voters viewing Trump as best able to handle the economy, immigration and ISIS.

SESAY: The Democratic Primary comes a week from Saturday and Hillary Clinton has 56-percent of the support to Bernie Sanders 38-percent, but just 43-percent of those polled are firm in who they are supporting. Well that poll also shows Bernie Sanders trailing Hillary Clinton among black voters in South Carolina. Both candidates are trying to earn votes from this demographic. On Tuesday, Sanders reiterated, one of his campaign messages at Morehouse, a historically black college in Atlanta, Georgia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So we need to radically change our priorities regarding education. We need to make public colleges and universities tuition free.

[Cheering and Applause]

SANDERS: We need to provide substantial help to HBCU's that have done a great job, a great job in educating young African-Americans and others.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Meanwhile Hillary Clinton was in New York addressing a crowd of African-American leaders. She laid out some of her plans for ending racial inequality.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm proposing a comprehensive new commitment to equity and opportunity for African- American communities. That means a real plan to create jobs. If I'm elected president, we will direct hundreds of billions of dollars in new investments to places like Harlem and rural South Carolina -

[Cheers and Applause]

CLINTON: -- including $20 billion aimed specifically at creating jobs for young people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Well, join us this week for a two-day event. The CNN public town hall is moderated by our own Anderson Cooper. Hear from the candidates Wednesday and Thursday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, live from Greenville, South Carolina; 5:00 p.m. Pacific; and 9:00 a.m. if you're in Hong Kong.

VAUSE: They may actually answer a question directly.

SESAY: Anderson Cooper will make sure of it.

VAUSE: Absolutely because they've been dodging the questions so far, we might get some information out of them, but we'll see. Be good to watch.

Okay, coming up here: Pope Francis has a message from Mexico's drug cartels as he prepares to visit one of the most notorious prisons in the country.

SESAY: Plus, amid high security a U.S. rock band performs Tuesday on a Paris stage. Later this hour, a look at why this concert was so emotionally charged for both the audience and the band.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

("WORLD SPORT" HEADLINES)

[00:21:56] SESAY: Welcome back everyone. U.S. President Obama is promising to nominate someone "indisputably qualified to succeed the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia."

VAUSE: Mr. Obama has lashed out at Republicans who argued the replacement should be left until the next president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: There's no unwritten law that says that it can only be done on off years. That's not in the Constitutional text. I'm amused when I hear people who claim to be strict interpreters of the Constitution suddenly reading into it a whole series of provisions that are not there. There is more than enough time for the Senate to consider, in a thoughtful way, the record of a nominee that I present and to make a decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Constitutional Attorney, John Eastman joins us now with more on the President's comments and the next steps. It's so good to have you with us. One of my favorite things about this whole situation is that we have all these different legal minds, with different positions on everything.

We had Alan Dershowitz, the esteemed legal mind, on CNN earlier on, saying that, in fact, this line is being trotted out by Republicans that let the next president by extension the American people choose is exactly against the spirit of the constitution. The law -- the legal letter of the constitution.

JOHN EASTMAN, CONSTITUTIONAL ATTORNEY: There's no question that the President has the authority to nominate and send a nomination up there. There's also no question that the Senate has to give advice and consent before that nominee can be seated. What's happened is, and I'm stunned that this President would say there's no authority to do this, he and Senator Clinton and Joe Biden and John Kerry led a group of 25 and they almost had a chance of getting to 40, back in 2006, four years before the end of President Bush's term, to try and block the appointment of Sam Alito to the Court. So the notion that's clearly not in the Constitution's text, but the notion that it's not in the political dynamic -

[Cross Talk]

VAUSE: In the Constitution, though, is the Senate compelled to take a vote? They're not? There's nowhere in the Constitution which says they must vote?

EASTMAN: They're not. They have to give advice and consent. They have given some advice here, you ought to send us a very moderate person who's not going to change the balance of the court or you're going to have trouble getting them confirmed.

VAUSE: They are required to act, but they're not required to -- there's nothing to compel them to act should they decide not to?

EASTMAN: The Constitution doesn't require them to act, although I think an extended filibuster that would keep a vacancy open for a long time, I've argued that that would be unconstitutional over time but, you know, we've had people sit in kind of limbo for years under Democrat controlled Senate without getting a confirmation hearing or a vote, and nobody's talking about that kind of length. We're talking about this court is intensely divided politically. The country is intensely divided and that means if you're going to have an idea that the court cannot follow and stick with the text of the Constitution, that's going to be our new norm, the Court's [00:25:03] going to be our super legislature, then that's a pretty dramatic change in what the Constitution actually says about the role of the Court.

I think when Republicans say "let the people decide", is that really what you want? To hand over that kind of governing authority to unelected officials? Then let's have that out at the election, and if that's what you want then elect Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders and that's the kind of court you'll get. But if you want a court that is supposed to apply the law as they receive it rather than make it, then we're going to pick somebody that's more --

VAUSE: So you're saying make it an election issue?

EASTMAN: That's right, exactly.

SESAY: Well, as you talk about being unable to divide the politics, the policies of our times from the legal issue of the court, or the legal (inaudible) of the court, what does the President do next? I mean, how do you anticipate his move?

EASTMAN: Well, you know, if there was somebody who would be palatable to the President, and his base, who actually is a faithful applier of the Constitution and the law, even in areas where it goes against their agenda, and he sent somebody like that up to the Senate, I think the Senate might well consider that nominee, but I can't imagine in the politics over in the White House that that happens.

VAUSE: Beyond the syntax here, the legal reading of the Constitution, the President says there's no legal reason why they won't consider it, but there's also no legal reason why they have to do anything more than that and they can sit on this as long as they want, legally; and the politics are a separate issue all together, right?

EASTMAN: They can. The Constitution doesn't set a timetable on it. If it had, we would have had a lot of confirmation hearings. People like, Miguel Estrada, for example, might well be sitting on the court today. The Democrats in the Senate blocked that first ever Hispanic nominee to the D.C. Circuit without a hearing. So the Constitution doesn't require the Senate to act. The politics of that come into play.

SESAY: Very, very briefly, are you one of those who says, or feels that we're looking at a constitutional crisis?

EASTMAN: I don't think so. Look, the court has -- in many times in our history have an evenly divided number. For the first 60 years of our history there were only six justices. So every decision had the risk of being evenly divided. We had a while where there were eight justices. So it's not happened in modern times but it's not out of the ordinary, historically.

VAUSE: They should have followed Madison.

EASTMAN: That's right, and the Court should have said we apply the law, we don't make it.

VAUSE: Thank you.

SESAY: John Eastman, thank you.

EASTMAN: Thank you very much for having me.

SESAY: Now, oil prices are rising and falling at breakneck speed. Ahead, we'll take a closer look at who gains and who loses in the volatile petroleum market.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:30:58] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. It's just on 9:30 on a Tuesday night. You're watching "CNN NEWSROOM", live from Los Angeles; I'm John Vause.

SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay; the headlines this hour: (HEADLINES)

VAUSE: Volatility is pumping through the world's oil markets yet again. Prices had initially surged then tumbled on word that oil ministers from Russia and a number of OPEC states have tentatively agreed to a freeze of output levels.

SESAY: But that freeze would not stem the huge global ail glut. Traders were hoping for an output cut instead. Meantime Saudi Arabia plans to raise production and it's still not clear what Iran's going to end up doing. The recent nuclear deal allows it to trade on the world market.

VAUSE: Okay; all that uncertainly led to a brutal trading day on Tuesday. It started with a 5-percent gain in the price of Brent crude. That quickly dropped away. Oil ended up trading below $33 a barrel.

SESAY: Right now it's still below $33 but it is trending upwards. As you see there on your screens, $32, (inaudible), up over one-percent; that's how it's looking right now on Wednesday.

VAUSE: Okay; we're joined now by Donna Howell, Senior Tech Reporter at "Investor's Business Daily". Let's try to make some sense of this.

SESAY: Yes.

VAUSE: Okay, so we saw this serge in the oil price; everyone is excited. We're going to freeze production and then everyone took a closer look at this and realize hang on, --

SESAY: Not so much.

VAUSE: -- this isn't going to work; is that a fair reading?

DONNA HOWELL, SENIOR TECH REPORTER, "INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY": Yes; we saw that more than one-percent lift out of stock in general on Tuesday. So there was some optimism about the market. With the oil price, what it looked like happened was that once there was word that the oil ministers were going to meet, there was a lot of optimism about what might come out of that. Then when they did meet the price of oil went up. The more details came out the lower it went, and essentially the gain from Tuesday went away. The issue seems to be that it's not just going to be Russia and Saudi Arabia that are agreeing to freeze oil output to the levels that they had in January, but they would want some other players, like maybe Iran, to also do the same thing. So it's not a done deal yet.

SESAY: Its what's putting the freeze in contacts, however. I mean, the fact of the matter is it is significant that Saudi Arabia would even agree to something like this, considering prior positions.

HOWELL: Yes, it's a big deal. I think that it's interesting too that the oil output in Saudi Arabia was at a record, I believe, in January and so the idea of a freeze is not at a low level. There's still a high output level, but there was even talk by the Saudi Oil Minister that maybe there would be some other things in the next few months beyond this kind of a deal.

VAUSE: Isn't part of the problem here, you could have brought this up, Saudi Arabia is already pumping oil at record amounts. They probably can't pump any more. The Russians have reached a post- Serbian high of 10 million barrels or something a day already, that was in January. So they're already pumping at maximum, many of these countries. They can't pump anymore. So a freeze at maximum levels doesn't mean a whole lot.

SESAY: Yes, to actual price.

HOWELL: Indeed, and there's been a lot of market share grab really going on as to who can essentially control more of the oil market. It's very interesting with Iran starting to pump oil and starting to ship oil, I believe it was last week or very recently to Europe for the first time in a long time. But if this kind of an agreement is able to get sealed it will be the first time in many years that OPEC has been able to come out with something can significantly influence the price of oil.

SESAY: The people want to see a cut.

HOWELL: Yes.

[00:35:01] SESAY: That's what people want. So the question is, what about the other players, the non-OPEC members like Kazakhstan, people like them? Do you see them getting on the same page as the likes of Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela?

HOWELL: Well I think they're getting squeezed by the low price of oil, you know. Saudi Arabia has said that they can survive a long time with low oil prices, but you have some emerging nations and others that really can't afford to have that low oil price. Beyond OPEC there's been actually some output fall lately so it isn't everybody who's been pumping like mad. It's really Saudi Arabia.

VAUSE: Is the key to all this really Iran and Iraq right now, and the Iranians have said they have no plans of cutting production, in fact they think they'll boost it; and Iraq has no plans because they need the money to fight ISIS?

HOWELL: There was some talk of some special situations that might apply to Iran in exchange for them freezing the price of oil. So certainly a lot going on with Iran lately, with the dropping the sanctions and now this. So I would expect the next few months a lot more negotiations. The U.S. energy agencies really don't see much higher price of oil this year, maybe like 37 a barrel or so for Brent crude, that's from a forecast that was last week though. So whether it factored in any of the talks that have just happened we'll have to wait a month to find out.

SESAY: And to pick up on that point about them not - the U.S. not seeing an escalation in price, I mean, this is just the new reality, at the end of the day, with the global economy slowing down, with demand for oil softening. Is this just the reality that they're not going to get - they aren't going to create the conditions to raise that price that you want to see?

HOWELL: Well, certainly the U.S. forecasters don't see that happening, even through 2017. About 50 a barrel or so for Brent crude is what they were looking at, which is what it was last year. The year before that it was twice as much. So definitely, with the U.S. and the game, and now with Iran in the game, a lot of oil is out there.

VAUSE: So go out and buy an SUV. The price is going to be low for a while.

SESAY: Donna Howell, such a pleasure. Thank you for helping us makes sense of it all.

VAUSE: Thank you. Okay, the worldwide oversupply of oil is hitting home in Canada.

SESAY: Yes; the countries oil sands once fueled an economic boom there, but not anymore. Paula Newton looks at the human toll of the country's oil bust.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You may not see oilrigs or wells or pipelines, but in this city financially hard hit in Canada's oil patch, each blow to the price of oil has slashed thousands of jobs, billions in investment and now barrel after barrel of production.

The aftermath is already showing up in Larry Graham's auction yard.

LARRY GRAHAM, AUCTIONEER: It's a 360 hoe and it's between 4 and 500,000 new.

NEWTON: As production is cut, heavy equipment, drilling equipment, oil patch service vehicles, and trucks, trucks and more trucks are being sold off.

GRAHAM: They've got to get rid of it so auctions are the quickest and fastest answer, by far, to do that.

NEWTON: While global oil production has barely budged, Canada's production showing the first signs of buckling. Once recent Canadian study found drilling was down nearly 50-percent this year alone.

MARTIN KING, FIRST ENERGY CAPITAL: Our cost structure is still definitely higher than in the U.S., and certainly the oil sands are making no money on any barrels being produced.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But the Saudi's will get what they want?

KING: The Saudi's will get what they want in the end.

NEWTON: Saudi Arabia's strategy? Flood the market with cheap oil to drive down North American production. In Canada, it's working. The reasons? Each barrel of oil here, especially from Canada's oil sands, costs more to produce and is sold to basically one customer.

NAHEED NENSHI, CALGARY MAYOR: Our only customer has become our biggest competitor and so whatever Saudi's and others are attempting to do to the shale production in the U.S., we are kind of the unwilling victim of all this.

NEWTON: Calgary's Mayor says his city and his country needs a new energy strategy including building Canadian pipelines to export oil to new customers. Here makes the point with a recent appearance on a Canadian comedy show.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NENSHI: How safe and clean it is. So I'm just going to put it into the pipeline here, in Alberta -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And here I'm going to take it out, and it comes out as - oh, money! Wow!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Making this reality will take years. In the meantime, Larry is limbering up for the equipment auction this week.

Is there anything about this one that feels a bit different to you right now?

GRAHAM: It may be, before it's done, the worst one they've ever had.

NEWTON: With decades in the business, Larry says his auctions will help people hang on and survive the oil bust as they wait and hope for another oil boom.

Paula Newton, CNN, Calgary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Well for all the latest business news make sure you check out our website: cnnmoney.com.

VAUSE: A short break here. When we come back, Pope Francis, yet again drawing huge crowds on his visit to Mexico. We'll have more on his message to drug cartel in one town which has been plagued by violence.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:43:07] VAUSE: Welcome back everybody. A California judge has ordered Apple to help federal investigators unlock an iPhone which was used by one of the attackers in the San Bernardino shooting. Syed Farook and his wife killed 14 people in that attack and they were later killed in a shootout with police.

SESAY: Authorities haven't been able to access data from the phone because it's locked with a passcode. Too many failed attempts to unlock it would activate Apple's auto erase function.

VAUSE: And now to the Pope's visit to Mexico, and he has delivered a message of hope to a city which has been plagued by drug violence.

SESAY: He spent the day in Morelia and spoke to thousands of young people. The Pope urged them not to give in to cartels and violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE FRANCIS, via translator: Jesus, he who gives us hope, would never ask us to be assassins; rather, he calls us disciples. He calls us friends. Jesus would never send us out to die; rather, everything in him is an invitation to life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The Holy Father will wrap up his Mexico tour on Wednesday with a trip to Ciudad Juarez, just south of the U.S. border.

SESAY: The first thing on his itinerary is to visit a penitentiary there. CNN's Polo Sandoval tells us more about the prison's notorious past.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In Cerezo State Prison in Juarez has long been considered Mexico's most dangerous and the men confined behind the walls and barbed wire a microchasm of the violence that once dominated the city outside.

During the high of the cartel violence in Juarez in 2010 the inmates [00:45:02] literally ran the prison. Six years later it prepares to welcome a Pope. The man who runs Cerezo today walks us through part of the prison that would have been too dangerous to enter a few years ago. That's when the prison yard served as a bloody battleground for rival street gangs.

JORGE BISSUET GALARZA, STATE PRISON DIRECTOR, CEREZO, CHIHUAHUA, MEXICO, via translator: The inmates governed the prison, let's be honest. Inmates held the keys to their cells and were armed.

SANDOVAL: Jorge Bissuet Galarza tells us a state of lawlessness and disorder once prevailed in Cerezo. Overpopulation bred violence and repeated riots. Inmates decided who lived and who died. GALARZA: We discovered kidnapping and extortion groups operating out of the prison.

SANDOVAL: Instead Chihuahua state officials have regained control and, like in Juarez, a delicate truce between rival gangs is in place. Many of the inmates have been busy preparing the prison for the papal visit. Among them, one who is currently serving a 30-year sentence for murder. He tells me the Pope's visit reinforces his faith in the Catholic church, his fellow man and most importantly he says, his chance for rehabilitation. Francis will meet with correctional officials in this small chapel previously used by inmates to store weapons. He'll then pray with 700 prisoners in the courtyard, among them cartel enforcers who kidnapped and killed.

Galarza hopes Francis' visit can help reinforce the peace among the gangs, not only in the prison but in the city that surrounds it.

Polo Sandoval, CNN, Juarez, Mexico.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: We're learning more about how one of Mexico's notorious inmates is faring in prison, and he's not happy.

VAUSE: Oh, dear!

SESAY: Oh, dear! Here's how the attorney for cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman explained it to a Mexican radio station.

VAUSE: Yes, we're quoting here: "He told me, literally, every two hours at night they wake me up to take roll. They are turning me into a zombie. They do not let me sleep. All I want is for them to just let me sleep."

SESAY: El Chapo's lawyer also says his client also told him that a dog had been guarding his cell. Time for a quick break.

VAUSE: He's had a haircut too.

SESAY: He does not look happy there, it has to be said.

VAUSE: Not a good look.

SESAY: Next on "CNN NEWSROOM," their last concert in Paris ended in tragedy when terrorist stormed the theater. Now this American band returns for an emotional and triumphant show. Do stay with us.

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[00:51:01] SESAY: In Paris, U.S. the rock band performing at the when terrorists killed 89 people has returned to finish its show.

(Clip of Eagles of Death Metal performing)

SESAY: On Tuesday "Eagles of Death Metal" performed for hundreds of survivors and relatives of those killed during last year's concert. VAUSE: Frontman, Jesse Hughes, and the rest of the band paused during the show to ask for a moment of silence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSE HUGHES, FRONTMAN, EAGLES OF DEATH METAL: 89 seconds of silence, please. Let's take a moment to remember and we get back to the fun.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: A team of psychologists were on hand for anyone overwhelmed by the emotion of the evenings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NATHALIE CHOURMEURTHE, BATACLAN SURVIROR: I hate crying. I wasn't the only to cry. Many people around were crying. With my boyfriend, we held each other very tight for the comfort, and we have each other and we hugged other people too, other victims because it's a beautiful thing to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Well before the concert the Eagles of Death Metal singer was critical of Frances strict gun control laws during an interview with French media.

VAUSE: This is what he said: "Did your French gun control stop a single person from dying at the Bataclan? And if anyone can answer yes I'd like to hear it because I don't think so. I hate it that it's that way. I think the only way that my mind has been changed is that maybe that until nobody has guns, everybody has to have them, because I don't want to ever see something like this happen again.

SESAY: Well, CNN's Jim Bittermann asks Hughes and another band member for more of their thoughts about the deadly Paris attacks. Here's a portion of that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM BITTERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think everybody's seen that video of you performing when the shooting starts. What was going through your mind exactly?

HUGHES: It's really, actually, difficult to describe what goes through your mind. I just wanted to get the band off stage.

BITTERMANN: Did you know right away there were gunshots?

HUGHES: Yes, I knew exactly what it was because you could feel it. I mean, I'm from America. I'm a hillbilly, I've been around firearms my whole life; you know what I mean? I know what gunpowder smells like. I knew it was all bad.

BITTERMANN: And then what happened? What happened next? HUGHES: I spent a little bit running around the backstage of the

Bataclan. I came face to face with one of them and the shooter's in the hallway and the only reason he didn't get me is because his gun was too big and he couldn't fit it through the doorway because he was holding it straight up and it hit the door frame as he brought it down.

BITTERMANN: The rest of the scene must have been something of chaos going on around you?

HUGHES: I don't think chaos aptly describes what it was. It was just the most awful thing I've ever seen in my life, and that I think I will probably ever see in my life.

BITTERMANN: Why did you want to come back on the tour? Why did you want to complete the tour after the events? Some people might have just said just leave it at that. it's such a disaster and -

JOSH HOMME, CO-FOUNDER, EAGLES OF DEATH METAL: As I say, quitting on yourself is hardest the first time and it gets easiest from there. So let's just not start. Let's be who we are.

HUGHES: And besides, we were interrupted in the middle of an amazing rock 'n roll show and I want to get back to that.

BITTERMANN: Are you seeing anything different from the fans now? Are they more in love with you now than they were before?

[00:55:02] HOMMES: Well we're in love with each other. We're woven together. We went to a gathering last night of survivors -

HUGHES: Which was beautiful.

HOMMES: -- it was so beautiful. Were there tragic stories? Yes, from everyone. But what the gathering was about was not focused on that. It was this love for each other. We're almost woven together into one fabric.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: It's quite remarkable to see them gathered again.

VAUSE: It's only been a few months since the terrorist attacks, and so many killed, to actually go back there and to finish that performance, clearly it was difficult but something they felt like they had to do. Obviously all the people survived and the band, as they say, will be forever linked.

SESAY: Yes, and a moment of, one would hope, cathartic healing. You know, we often talk about the word closure, what that means and if it really is a real word and anything to be attained --

VAUSE: Sometimes it is.

SESAY: Sometimes it is, but at least it's on the path toward getting to a place that can deal with this. VAUSE: Okay; you've been watching "CNN NEWSROOM," live from Los Angeles; I'm John Vause.

SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. Stay with us; John and I will be back with a look at the day's top stories right after this.

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