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U.S. Taxpayers Could Pay for Border Wall; U.S. Intel: No Doubt Russia Meddled in Election; Four Charged with Hate Crimes and Kidnapping; U.S. Warns of North Korea's Rising Nuclear Ability; U.S.: Pyongyang Conducted 24 Missile Tests in 2016; "Smart Crib" Aimed at Soothing Fussy Babies; California Cities Compete For George Lucas Museum; Cool Gadgets Shown Off at Consumer Electronics Show; New Device Can Quickly Charge Phone Battery; Device Helps Stroke Victims With Physical Therapy; World Sports. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired January 06, 2017 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:00:12] MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.
And ahead this hour:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENT-ELECT: Who is going to pay for the wall?
CROWD: Mexico.
TRUMP: Who?
CROWD: Mexico.
TRUMP: By the way, 100 percent
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, maybe not. It looks like Donald Trump is making a major change to one of his biggest campaign promises.
Facebook Live torture: the four people accused in that horrendous crime now facing hate crime charges.
Also "Star Wars" creator George Lucas and the fight between San Francisco and Los Angeles to showcase his massive art collection.
Hello everyone. Thanks for being with us. I'm Michael Holmes.
NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.
Thanks for you company, everyone.
One of Donald Trump's biggest and loudest campaign promises might be falling by the wayside; his transition team signaling to Congress that he wants to pay for a border wall with Mexico with U.S. taxpayer money. Trump repeatedly told his campaign rallies that Mexico would pay for the wall.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration.
And Mexico will be paying for that wall.
But we will build a wall. Mexico is going to pay for the wall. We're going to stop drugs from coming in.
Who is going to pay for the wall?
CROWD: Mexico.
TRUMP: Who?
CROWD: Mexico.
TRUMP: By the way, 100 percent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And joining me here now in Los Angeles Democratic strategist Matt Littman and CNN political commentator John Phillips.
John -- this was one of the promises. Build a wall, beautiful wall. Mexico will pay for it. Now the taxpayer might be stuck with the bill. Is it going to hurt?
JOHN PHILLIPS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I guess we can always turn to Plan B which is to make it look like left field at Fenway Park and make the Yankees pay for it, which was always in his back pocket.
But there are ways where you can throw certain taxes to go ahead and make either Mexico pay for it or make people doing business with Mexico pay for it, for example.
Remittances -- billions of dollars go from the United States to Mexico every single year through remittances. You can levy a tax on those. You can find ways to do it to where he can spin it and say yes, Mexico is paying for the wall even if the Mexican government itself doesn't write the check.
HOLMES: And Matt, is that spin -- I mean that's semantics, isn't it?
MATTHEW LITTMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, of course, that's Trump using the spin, but he did go through the whole campaign saying Mexico is going to pay for the wall.
I do sort of agree with you, John, in that I think he'll end up saying, yes, Mexico will eventually pay for the wall. But the truth is at the beginning here, the U.S. taxpayers are going to get stuck with this. Let me also just say that this is one of several promises that I think Trump is going to break immediately.
The other one is he said he's going to replace Obamacare with something beautiful -- right. We see already they have no plan to replace Obamacare with anything.
He said, for example, Michigan is going to be the manufacturing capital of the world. That's probably not going to happen either.
Lock them up about Hillary Clinton as soon as he got in. He was going to prosecute Hillary Clinton. That didn't happen either.
I think a lot of the stuff that he --
HOLMES: Drain the swamp.
LITTMAN: Drain the swamp is wow. I mean this is the swamp. I think a lot of the stuff that he told his supporters is going to turn out immediately, they're going to find out the first few months, it's not happening.
HOLMES: John, I've got to give you the right of reply there.
PHILLIPS: Yes.
HOLMES: That's a long list.
PHILLIPS: Yes. Look, well just take the swamp for example. He said he was going to go in with outsiders. He was going to go in with sharks. Going with people that were -- the corporate titans, people who were the titans of industry and bring them in and negotiate on behalf of the American people they way they negotiated on behalf of their shareholders.
We're seeing a lot of outsiders be nominated for this cabinet including Tillerson over at State and others. So I think the swamp is being drained.
HOLMES: He also said he was going to take on Wall Street and he's got a bunch of Wall Street insiders there. Goldman Sachs.
LITTMAN: There's a lot of Goldman Sachs in his administration. We're also finding out that the congressman who's nominated to be the head of Health and Human Services was also selling stocks related to healthcare while he was in Congress and while he knew a little bit more than most people about healthcare.
I mean I think, you know, one of his closest advisers during the campaign already became a lobbyist. I think we're going to be seeing a lot of that. I don't think this is draining the swamp at all. I think this is the swamp.
PHILLIPS: Trump's brand is winning. And he went out and found people from Goldman Sachs. He went out for people from Chevron, from people who have a long history of winning. And he's putting them in the United States government.
HOLMES: He's got a lot of supporters who took him at face value and it's going to be interesting to see if there's fallout from those promises.
[00:05:00] Do stand by. We have a lot to talk about. We've just gotten started. But we do want to touch on something else that we will come back and speak with these gentlemen about.
U.S. intelligence officials say they now know who passed stolen e- mails from Russia to WikiLeaks during the U.S. presidential campaign. And they say they intercepted conversations in which top Russian officials celebrated Donald Trump's victory.
Now these revelations come as the top U.S. intelligence chiefs told senators they're more confident than ever that Russia was behind the hacking.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says only the most senior Russian officials could have authorized such an operation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES CLAPPER, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: And so all of these other modes whether it's RT, use of social media, a fake news -- they exercised all of those capabilities in addition to the hacking. Just the totality of that effort not only as DNI but as a citizen, I think is of great concern.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Trump lashed out at media accounts of the Russia hacking report. He said tweeting this, let's have a look at that. "How did NBC get an exclusive look into the top secret report he" -- President Obama -- "was presented? Who gave them this report and why? Politics!"
Well, joining me now live from Newton, Massachusetts CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem. Juliette -- always good to see you.
Ok, how significant is this development that the Americans they have found, the middleman if you like? Or the one who handed it over?
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I think it's very significant because there is always a question of who had or who was able to get materials from the DNC hack to WikiLeaks. No one believed that WikiLeaks actually (AUDIOGAP) repository. WikiLeaks then exposes those e-mails.
So I think it's significant that the entire intelligence community -- there's no disagreement here -- the entire United States intelligence community is willing to say we have the middleman.
And that the other important aspect of this testimony today was that other evidence, not interceptions of the cyber attack but interceptions of conversation, spies or others that we may have in Russia, also have evidence confirming that it was Russia.
So it's not just the cyber side that leads us to believe it's Russia. It's other aspects of the investigation.
HOLMES: Juliette -- are you concerned that, you know, we talk a lot about, you know, Russia did this, Donald Trump says that, the intelligence agency said it. The thing lost in all of this is the actual basic fact which is that a foreign power may well have interfered in the electoral process, not change the result but interfered.
KAYYEM: Right. And I think -- I think it's so important that, you know, that CNN and others just keep pounding on that point. That the atmospherics of what Trump believes or doesn't believe, what Julian Assange does or doesn't do is really the side story to the fact that the Russians were able to manipulate information, you know, whether it was propaganda, state news, whatever or just to release the Podesta e- mails to sway or to involve themselves in the one major democratic right we have, right, which is voting.
And I think it's important that we stay focused on that because if you can get the political atmospherics out of the way, then that becomes the thing that we as Americans want to focus on, not just for America in 2016 election but, of course, for future elections let alone western Europe, African elections wherever else Putin might be interested in putting his thumb on the scale.
HOLMES: Do you -- when you do look at the back and forth and, you know, did Trump believe this and did Trump not believe that -- are you concerned that he's going to be briefed by the intelligence community as President or (inaudible) it's going to be a declassified version, really publicly? Do you think -- how important is it that President- Elect Trump then goes along with the intelligence community if what they present to him is what they say they've got?
We've lost Juliette. There you -- that's modern technology for you. We'll get her back. What a wasted question. We'll use it on you guys.
Meanwhile Russia firing back against the election hacking allegations. The Kremlin released its own statement on Thursday saying this. Quote, "We have suggested cooperation on combating cyber threats numerous times. It was rejected and we are sick and tired of those irresponsibly blaming everything on our country. If there is a need for an enemy, why not try someone else?"
Back with me again Democratic strategist Matt Littman and CNN political commentator John Phillips.
Well, ok John -- let's talk about that. Do you think Russia has a point that they're the punching bag of the West or do you think -- what do you think? Do you think they're involved?
[00:09:58] PHILLIPS: I agree with Mitt Romney when back in 2012 he said they were our largest global problem. And not only was he laughed out of the room by President Obama who said 1980s call, they need their foreign policy back. He was mocked by late-night hosts. He was mocked by everyone. He wasn't only the stupidest person in the political world. He was the stupidest person in the country for saying something like that.
I don't think you can overreact enough to these sorts of things. What makes me skeptical of the Democrats and how they're reacting to this is that the Russians were allegedly hacking American political systems going back into December.
Donald Trump was not the president in December. President Obama was the president in December. Why did it take this long to start the ball going? Why did they wait until after Hillary Clinton lost the election before they started ringing the alarm bell?
HOLMES: Well, I'll say they didn't want to ring the alarm bells because I think (inaudible) he seemed to be influencing the election. That's their effort.
(CROSSTALK)
LITTMAN: Well there was a lot of time (ph) about Mitt Romney, not a lot of time about Donald Trump. So here's the problem. We all know what happened here. The reason why Donald Trump doesn't accept what the intelligence community is telling him is because he lost the election by three million votes. But he won electorally just narrowly enough and he doesn't want people questioning his victory.
So he's willing to throw the intelligence community under the bus here. I think it's quite obvious and I think he's starting to look a little bit foolish because now the intelligence community is coming out and they're going to come out publicly next week. And the former CIA director who's on his transition team quit today because he's so unhappy with the way Trump is speaking about the intelligence community.
HOLMES: Before we move on. Joe Biden actually said something today that -- I've just been waiting for Donald Trump to tweet about it. Let's play that -- that sound.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Grow up, Donald. Grow up. Time to be an adult, you're president. You've got to do something. Show us what you have. You're going to propose legislation. We're going to get to debate it. Let the public decide. Let them vote in Congress. Let's see what happens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Joe Biden. John -- what was interesting to me about that -- he's smiling, right? I got another (inaudible) where I sensed some pre-Schadenfreude going on there. He was sort of saying, ok, show us the politics. It's your turn now.
What did you make of that? PHILLIPS: I think outside of Mariah Carey he's the most frustrated person in the world right now because he believes in his heart of hearts that if he ran he would have won the Democratic nomination and won the presidency.
He had a family tragedy with the death of his son and he wasn't able to run. He thinks that Hillary Clinton did an awful job as the Democratic nominee and he's looking at this just not being able to comprehend the world that he's living in. And what you saw there was that frustration.
LITTMAN: Joe Biden is my former boss. That's a lot of speculation. I don't really believe a lot of it. You know, Hillary --
PHILLIPS: You believe some of it.
LITTMAN: Well, Joe Biden does think that he should be president. I absolutely believe that.
PHILLIPS: That was the important part.
LITTMAN: And I think it will haunt him for a long time that he didn't run. But the difference between Joe Biden and Hillary is Joe Biden has never been a prolific fundraiser. For him to beat Hillary it would have been very difficult.
Donald Trump can attack Joe Biden by tweets but he's got so many people to attack at this point, it's hard to keep track. It's Chuck Schumer today, so whether he attacks Biden, we don't know.
PHILLIPS: He had a secret weapon that he could have used to beat her in the primary.
HOLMES: Which was?
PHILLIPS: Littman.
LITTMAN: Thank you, really. It's not a secret anymore.
HOLMES: He could have used Matt. He believes that part of it.
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: The thing that troubles a lot of people is if Donald Trump isn't listening to the intelligence community now and is tweeting foreign policy in 140 characters, who is he listening to?
PHILLIP: Well, this is not uncommon. Our president is not a general. It doesn't mean they have to believe every line that they get from intelligence agencies or the military. Right now we have Hillary Clinton speaking before fund raisers and saying, you know, I lost because of the FBI. I lost because of James Comey. So she doesn't trust the FBI, he doesn't trust the CIA -- that's how it works.
LITTMAN: This is highly unusual -- it's highly unusual because you have 15 intelligence agencies which have said what happened here and Trump is choosing to believe Putin instead of believing the intelligence agencies, right. He's siding with them. It's all about his ego. And that's the problem. It bodes very badly for the next four years.
HOLMES: Yes. And we're going to talk next hour. We'll have more of that. There are a lot of people who think maybe it's not about just ego. Maybe there's deals done that need to come out at some point. Who knows? We'll talk -- we'll talk again.
Thank you -- gentlemen. Democratic strategist Matt Littman and CNN political commentator John Phillips there.
We'll be back with them next hour.
New developments in the brutal attack of a special needs teen broadcast live on Facebook. When we come back here on the program, the charges, how the victim is doing and what our expert thinks about Facebook's liability.
Also it belongs in a museum but where does the museum belong. George Lucas looking for a city to house his art collection -- it's quite a collection, too.
We'll be right back.
[00:14:48] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Welcome back.
A special needs teenager recovering after being tortured during a Facebook Live broadcast. His alleged attackers now face hate crime and kidnapping charges. The video, of course, graphic.
Rosa Flores now with more from Chicago on this shocking and disturbing case.
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Michael -- police tell us that this was not a premeditated attack. Instead they describe it as a weekend hangout gone very wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
FLORES: The disturbing images are difficult to watch. A white special needs teenager being bound, beaten and slashed all while four black individuals scream racial slurs and make anti-Trump comments.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He represents Trump.
FLORES: It was all streamed live on social media. At one point showing the victim's scalp being cut with a knife, blood coming out of his wounds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can (EXPLETIVE DELETED) in a trunk. You can put a brick on the dash -- FLORES: The video also shows the suspects cutting the victim's shirt
with knives and pounding his head. The four suspects are charged with aggravated kidnapping, hate crime and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
The victim was friends with one of the suspects and was with them willingly. But rough-housing, police say, escalated to abuse.
EDDIE JOHNSON, CHICAGO POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: Let me be very clear. The actions in that video are reprehensible.
FLORES: The victim met up with his friend Jordan Hill at this McDonald's in the northwest Chicago suburb Saturday, police say. Hill was in a stolen van and drove the victim 30 miles to Chicago where they hung out with the other suspects.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) (inaudible).
FLORES: This video was live-streamed Tuesday. The same day, police found the victim injured and confused, wearing a tank top, shorts and sandals in 20 degree weather.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was bloodied, he was battered.
FLORES: This woman saw the swarm of police activity that followed and then she put two and two together.
There was a suspicious van driving erratically on Saturday, she said and she remembers seeing one of the suspects.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's scary. It's really scary. I'm constantly telling my sister that we need to find somewhere else to live.
FLORES: Paul Joseph Watson, from the conspiracy Web site InfoWars was quick to tie the case to the Black Lives Matter movement, tweeting, "This is the Black Lives Matter terror the MSM has legitimized."
FLORES: The connection, debunked by police saying there is no evidence to show the terrible attack is linked to the Black Lives Matter movement.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FLORES: The suspects are expected to face a judge in Bonne (ph) court tomorrow afternoon. Now I asked the police if the suspects showed any signs of remorse and they told me no, that they did not. As for the victim, he's with his family tonight -- Michael.
[00:20:07] HOLMES: Our thanks to Rosa Flores there. Now, the teenager's brother-in-law meanwhile says he's doing as well as can be expected. Meanwhile the U.S. President Barack Obama calling the video "despicable".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's been heartbreaking. You see what happens in Chicago and these are communities I know and love. And there are so many good people there. And there are people who I know have been personally affected by that level of violence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And for more, CNN legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson joining me now from New York City. Always a pleasure to see you, sir.
First of all, do you think the charges that are outlined are enough? Is this as good as law enforcement can bring?
JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good to see you -- Michael.
It certainly is. I mean the case overall is just beyond disturbing to say the least. But I think when you look at the charges, first you look at aggravated kidnapping -- that in and of itself carries up to 30 years in jail.
And then, of course, the other charges in terms of the aggravated battery for they actually did in terms of the torture and of course, the hate crime.
And the hate crime doing it predicated upon that is engaging in the act of abducting him and harming him because of either one of two reasons under the statute that is the law. And that is either that he had a mental impairment or disability -- that qualifies as a hate crime if you do something to someone because of that. Or if you do it predicated upon race.
And so based upon the nature of the charges, Michael, the seriousness of the charges and the amount of time they carry, I think certainly prosecutors have the charges right.
HOLMES: You're a criminal defense attorney, what might the defense argue in this case? I mean what defense attorney really wants to take this to trial? Can you see a plea bargain going on?
JACKSON: I think what you'll see is what we as defense attorneys call mitigation. Mitigation is attempting to save their client by giving them less. I don't think that this is a case that could be won on the facts. I mean they're broadcasting a crime for the world to see. What are you going to say, the defense lawyer, my client wasn't there?
But I think in terms of mitigation it doesn't provide an excuse but it provides -- they're going to be arguing that listen, these are young people. They're 18 years old, one of course, is 24. But when you're 18, the focus of the law, you look at it to refocus it -- punishment, deterrence and rehabilitation. That's what our system is based upon.
So yes, judge -- the need to be punished and yes people need to be deterred, that is, you don't want others doing this. But you need to focus on rehabilitation, their redeeming qualities, in an 18-year-old that will still have them ready for society, still having them ready to contribute to society. And so I think you'll see arguments like that with respect to potential plea negotiations and discussions and certainly sentencing in the event that they're convicted.
HOLMES: I wanted to get your thoughts about Facebook. Is there any liability? I'm wondering whether they could be sued by the victim. This guy was streamed for 25 minutes without the benefit of being blurred like the mainstream media has been doing. They're raw videos on the Internet, probably forever. Is there a case for reputational harm being done, slammed or ridiculed, something like that that Facebook should be worried about?
JACKSON: Not at all. I mean if you think it Facebook certainly is a third party here. They didn't aid in any way. They didn't abet. They didn't assist. What they did was provide the medium for it to be broadcast to everyone else.
And so in the event that Facebook starts being held accountable for everything some criminal does, you won't see Facebook because they'll go out of business. They can't possibly accept responsibility for all the improper, inappropriate and unlawful acts that people engage in throughout the country and throughout the world.
And so I wouldn't look to see any liability any time soon on Facebook. There may, of course, you know, be a discussion down the road for that in terms of what liability they should have and will laws be passed in the future holding them accountable. But at this point, I don't see any liability whatsoever, Michael, as it relates to Facebook.
HOLMES: Do you think, I mean, in the broader picture, I mean do you think everybody's shocked about this as they should be? I mean it really -- that really just defies description in a way. But do you think this behavior, at least in some areas has always been around? Not exactly like this incident but things like it. But now with social media, you've got Facebook Live, you've got SnapChat, a video camera in everyone's hand that we just see more of it?
JACKSON: It's a great point. I mean I would be naive and we all would to suggest that, oh this never happened before. And you know what, all of a sudden society has run amok and there's no humanity anymore.
I think certainly though be that as it may, there's a problem. And there's a big problem here and I think that what can we do as a society to show our young people that this isn't right? What can we do to set as better example, to set better standards, to let them know not only isn't it right, but you can't do this and then think it's glorified by laughing about it.
[00:25:00] So yes, Michael -- I think it has been around. But moving forward, we have to think about a response just to capture the imagination, the attention and the education of our young people so that they don't engage in behavior like this, you know, to the harm and detriment of this poor child who was just, you know, tortured for everybody in the world to see. It's just -- it's shameful. HOLMES: Yes. I couldn't agree more. And I think it's just staggering to think that people could do this and think it's funny, to think that it's ok. It's a real societal issue -- you're right.
Joey -- always good to see you, Joey Jackson.
JACKSON: Thank you so much -- Michael. Be well.
HOLMES: You, too.
Still to come here on the program -- a dire warning from the U.S. about North Korea's rapidly evolving nuclear capabilities.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. I'm Michael Holmes with the headlines this hour.
Donald Trump's transition team now says he wants Congress to pay for a border wall with Mexico and that, of course, means U.S. taxpayer money. Trump repeatedly promised during his campaign that Mexico would pay for the wall.
Meanwhile, top U.S. intelligence officials testified Thursday, they have no doubt Russia tried to interfere in the U.S. presidential election.
Two people are dead after an explosion near a courthouse in western Turkey. Assailants detonating a car bomb during a firefight with police in Izmir. The city's mayor says the PKK is behind the attack but there has been no claim of responsibility from any group.
[00:29:58] The U.S. is warning that the nuclear threat from North Korea is growing worse by the day. A senior U.S. State Department official says Pyongyang continues testing missiles and warheads at an unprecedented level and even failures help push it ahead. The official said, Japan, and South Korea, and the U.S., they depressed Pyongyang harder to return to this armament talks.
CNN's Will Ripley has made 10 visits to North Korea. He's a journalist over the past three years. He joins us now from Hong Kong. Good to see you. Will, how big a threat is this qualitative improvement in nuclear missile capability?
WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly is a threat in the sense. That if you look at the timeline of North Korea's nuclear, missile development over the past couple of years, they have really intensified things. I was there last January for their fourth nuclear test. They had their fifth nuclear test. In September, they have launched scores of midrange missiles.
Now, the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, saying that he is in the final stages of developing an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying a miniaturize warhead that could hit an American city. And, while a lot of experts for a long time discounted the ability of the North Koreans to achieve that goal, we have seen rapid progress. A much more rapid than many experts had predicted.
And so, the dynamic that is in place now is you have Japan and South Korea, and the United States. This trilateral meeting that had six of these meetings since April of 2015 to try to figure what they can do. And one thing continues to be these unprecedented sanctions Tony Blinken, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State spoke about that earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO-CLIP)
ANTHONY BLINKEN, U.S. DEPUTY SECRETARY OF STATE: Over the past year, a year we have strengthened sanctions and other forms of pressure to truly unprecedented levels. Things that we have not seen at all in the past and these efforts are making it much more difficult to the regime to earn the hard currency that it needs to supports nuclear weapons programs while also sending a very clear message. That the International Community simply will not accept. North Korea has nuclear power.
(END VIDEO-CLIP)
RIPLEY: But all of this trilateral cooperation doesn't really have a whole lot of bite without the -- without China's involvement. Because much of North Korea's economic development, the economy, kind of is limping along at a slow pace is because of trade with China. And that trade continues despite these unprecedented sanctions.
They are seem talks that a rumor to be in the works in the coming weeks and months with China. But we've seen over the years, Michael, are really limited willingness on the part of China to cooperate too much with the United States and Japan, and South Korea.
Because strategically they want to keep the regime in place, that -- so that the northern of the peninsula has a Chinese ally in hand. Which is why James Clapper, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence has said that he believes denuclearization of North Korea, at this point with all these dynamics in place is probably a lost cost, so about to see what happens.
HOLMES: Yeah, indeed. Will, thanks so much. Will Ripley there in Hong Kong for us.
Do stay with us, when we come back here on the program, filmmaker George Lucas, looking to cement his legacy with the new museum, which cities are buying for his art collection.
That's next. Also, a new type of crib aims to quiet your crying bundle of joy. We'll check out of this new gadget and how about new trick for techie. That's when we come back as well.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:35:31] HOLMES: The creator of Star Wars, George Lucas, has decided he wants to give a new hope to one lucky U.S. city. And that is an offer to build a museum which will house his art collection and introduce Star Wars fashion the proposed renderings of the $1.5 billion project do look like something from a galaxy far far away.
Lucas considering two possible locations for the futuristic structure, Los Angeles or San Francisco. And, that has started a bit of a feast competition between both of those cities who impose wanted to be the host.
For more on the fast forward, we're joined by Christopher Hawthorne, he is an architecture Critic for The Los Angeles Times. All right, let's start a bit. There's a lot of pieces of art that he wants to display. We'll get to the buildings in a minute. How good is the collection?
CHRISTOPHER HAWTHORNE, ARCHITECTURE CRITIC, THE LOS ANGELES TIMES: It's very deep and it's an unusual collection in a sense that it has quite a bit of Hollywood movie memorabilia starting with items from Star Wars. It's also got a very deep art collection.
George Lucas has been collecting art seriously for a couple of decades. And it's very heavy on what he calls narrative arts so Norman Rockwell, NCWS (ph). It's very different from the kind of abstract modern art that makes up the collection of the museum, a modern art in New York for example.
So, even the collection itself makes it kind of statement about the art that George Lucas thinks needs to get more attention on the art world.
HOLMES: It's kind of a collectic in many ways. As you say, you know, you got your Rockwell's in a ring wire (ph). I think you have illustrations by Beatrix Potter of Peter Rabbit thing but also a story board from the Wizard of Oz, Cassablanca, and thanks like that, that some pretty cool stuff.
HAWTHORNE: And Los Angeles which is one in the cities, as you mentioned, a vying for these collections. It's never really had a Hollywood museum, the academy is now building -- the Academy of Motion Arts picture -- Arts and Sciences, which is building a film museum on Wilshire Boulevard. That's in the works but this would be in a kind of rival to that, a compliment into it, and to pay amends to the -- to Hollywood film history.
HOLMES: OK, so you got this, is it L.A., or is it San Francisco? This rivalry of how desirable is a museum like this for one of those cities.
HAWTHORNE: It's very desirable and in fact the mayors of San Francisco and Los Angeles are practically falling over each other to give some public land to George Lucas to build the museum. Having said that, he has had some trouble politically, he originally wanted to build it in the Presidio, in San Francisco. It faced some local opposition there.
He took the plan to Chicago where Mayor Rahm Emanuel was another big supporter of it. His wife, Mellody Hobson; George Lucas's wife, is from Chicago. They had a piece of land on like Michigan, just south of Soldier Fields and that became politically controversial and it was stymied by law suits. And so, George Lucas has pick up this proposal, brought it back to the west coast and is now rejigger it a little bit looking at a site on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay.
HOLMES: Yeah.
HAWTHORNE: And a site in downtown -- near downtown Los Angeles in the exposition.
HOLMES: It's funny you should say that because among the sniping. Adam Van De Water, the project manager for the museum at San Francisco City hall. It was funny he said, put yourself in his shoes, you could be on Treasure Island where you are visible throughout downtown San Francisco. Attacking them has been a bit of a good swipe at Los Angeles, or you could be in a museum in a park with other museums. I mean he's really have a go at L.A., there isn't he.
HAWTHORNE: Beside in San Francisco is quite spectacular.
HOLMES: Yeah.
HAWTHORNE: It does have some issues also. It's tricky to get to. The only way to get there now is by the bay bridge. There are plans for a ferry but they are not finalized yet. The argument that Eric (ph) said he makes on the half of Los Angeles as you have essential location nearly lake real stock, just across the street from the USC and of course George Lucas is a USC Alumnus.
HOLMES: Of course, of course, haven't thought of that. Now, the L.A. mayor also said, this is the largest civic gift in American history. Is that true, is that big a deal?
HAWTHORNE: It depends how you value the collection. It's tough to say exactly how many -- how much these pieces of art are worth. Because no one has had a real look at the entirety of that collection but certainly if you take the heavyweight artist that you mentioned who are in this collection. You add in the cost of the museum itself and endowment of something like $400 million. It's close to a $1.5 billion. So, certainly a higher than--
HOLMES: Yeah.
HAWTHORNE: -- almost any other museum of its kind.
HOLMES: And the other goofy, he is funding this. I mean this is, you know, his putting up the money for this. So that I want to get into the designs too, because there has been some criticism, you know, I mean personally, being architecture is in the eye of the beholder. But I think they both really cool. You're the expert. What do you think?
[00:40:10] HAWTHORNE: He is working with a young Chinese architect named Ma Yansong who came up of Zaha Hadid office. She's a famous the late famous Iraq architectures who was based on London who died last year.
And he has proposed to slightly different but both very futuristic designs for the museum. Then a lot of people have compared to the visual elements that you might in find in Star Wars and a real departure from the original proposal architecturally. That George Lucas made when he was looking at the Presidio side in San Francisco. That was with the different architect and it was more traditional. When he decided to go to Chicago, he hired Ma yYansong, this young Chinese Architect, and went for a completely different kind of architectural look.
HOLMES: I think they are both fantastic. I mean -- So it's a win-win really, it all sounds pretty like a bright idea.
HAWTHORNE: Both cities are very interested. I think that the details politically are what have tripped up George--
HOLMES: Yeah.
HAWTHORNE: -- Lucas and, I think he has learned overtime how to play the political game a little bit, more expertly.
HOLMES: Well, good luck to him. That's what I say. Christopher Hawthorne, an architecture Critic with The Los Angeles Times. Thanks for coming in.
HAWTHORNE: No, it's my pleasure.
HOLMES: It's going to be great, isn't it? Well, one of the world's largest textiles is happening right now. In Las Vegas, a lot of cool gadgets to see as you might imagine.
One is a device that quickly charges a smart phone battery. We all need one of those. Now Samuel Burke has more now from the Consumer Electronic Show.
SAMUEL BURKE, CNNMONEY BUSINESS AND TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Michael, before you saying your congratulations. The marvelous of technology have not delivered me a baby quite yet, but they have delivered a smart crib for parents which had microphones. Listening for when the baby cries, so if the baby starts to get upset, this crib will go into actions. So, will come back to that in just one second.
But, nearly as difficult as the baby waking you up in the middle of the night is when your phone runs out of battery. And there are actually a lot of Israeli companies here. Small country but has huge representation in the tech world, and here at CES. Working on ways to improve battery lives. So this company which is StoreDot says that they can charge your phone from zero to a 100 percent in just 5 minutes. And we've seen it worked a few times here.
So I'll just plug that in now, and let it charge. Basically what this technology is, is it a charger, but it's also a special type of battery that in certain phones working with Samsung right now. But this company says that we could see this in some lines on the market by the end of 2017.
Now, Michael, one of the times where it's really great to be a tech reporter, not just when you see cool things but you might actually see technology that could make a different in people's lives and in their health.
Now, what I am wearing is called a Raphael, it's a device which cost about $100 and for the victims of stroke. Patients who are trying to do physical therapy to maybe regain movement in a hand or improve mobility in their hands.
So it's not actually a robot that's forcing me to do anything. It's just measuring. So what it does is it has interactive games which allow you to know how much you're moving. And so that you can improve and know that you need to do it a little more. Or maybe, you are getting worse and you do need to see a doctor more often, or that you are getting better and you can continue these activities.
So, for example it can show me. OK, I'm squeezing, getting all the juice out and it will tell me, did I go up 50 degrees, down 40 degrees. Right, left, so this is a technology which could actually change how people are living.
Now, while we are talking the baby did get a little upset, so again I told you to have this microphones here, Michael. When you hears the baby is upset. It's in the sock, and it's locked in so it can't turn over during the night, and will start moving the baby when it hears a crying, rocking about back and forth and even making a swishing noise.
So what they are trying to do is emulate the type of movement that his baby would have heard in the room. It cost $1,160, it's called this new -- a lot of money but hey might be cheaper than forking our money for a nanny, Michael?
HOLMES: You got that right Sam. And thanks for that, if I need to change the nappy as well. Thanks for watching CNN Newsroom live from Los Angeles. I'm Michael Holmes, World Sport coming up next. You are watching CNN.
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[00:46:01] PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: Hi there. Thanks for joining us and welcome to "CNN World Sports".
Starting up with Spain's fame Copa del Rey Cup competition where Wednesday we saw that Real Madrid recording an emphatic first league win to take a big step towards a base in the court the day on, could that better rivals and the current holders of the tournament.
Barcelona put the cattle ends follow suit. Well not so fast it would seem the host Bilbao is taking a two goal lead their second from Inaki Williams just really nice moving at that point great finish as well. That point Barcelona look in trouble. Not surprisingly though it's, you know, who. It's there Argentine star Linel Messi who get them back in it with a nice free kick there. It ends two on Bilbao who ended the match which is 9 men. It's just the first league though remember.
Now maybe just the first week of January, but this is a task that is lined up for this week's tournament of champions in Hawaii. Jordan Spieth the defending champion at this PGA tournament on May. I mean he's joined on the breath taking Kapalua of course by the world number one from Australia Jason Day and U.S. Open champ Dustin Johnson. That triumph was the DJ's first career major and it safe to say that American is more than happy to get that particular monkey off his back.
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DUSTIN JOHNSON, 2016, U.S. OPEN CHAMPION: The best part about is I'm not going there to, to give my first major. I've got one so. You know I'm not still trying to win one. I've already won one. I know what it takes. I know, you know, I'd put my self in position a lot of time before, but just not really finish one off. And so, so I feel like, you know, obviously I've got the game to contend and then the majors and but. You know it's still all about, you know, you got to execute golf shot.
SNELL: Now this time last year Jordan's Speith was coming off a break out, 2015 when took the golfing world by storm. Many expected him to continue dominating sport, but the now 23-year-old actually felt claimed a major in '16. And so his world ranking dropped from 1st to 5th. Now he still manages two wins and atop 10 finish as last year, but that simply not good enough when your name is Jordan Speith.
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JORDAN SPEITH, CURRENTLY 5th IN WORLD GOLF RANGKINGS: I was happy when the ball touch-down and 2017 started. It was still a great year in '16 but. I learned a lot on both ends of things highs and lows which I didn't really have many lows in '15. And before that it was just trying to, to climb up to the top level. So I learned a lot from the highs and lows and therefore I think I can use that to my advantage this year and on.
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SNELL: Well, he used to be the sports most dominant figure, but now it's all about form and fitness for the former world number one Tiger Woods. The 14 time major winner who turned 41 last month has revealed a hectic early season schedule and given us an old too rare glimpse into how he really felt during his most recent injury layout.
Wood's will begin his season in the last week of January. We can tell. He competing at Torrey Pines in Southern California, then he'll travel to the UAE for the Dubai Dessert Classic a tournament he's won twice. After a week of Tiger will tee it up with the Genesis Open, back in California before the Honda classic in South Florida. That's four tournaments in 5 weeks and a clear indication he's aiming to play in the masters in April. The seasons first major.
Meantime, the America's right hander is revealing his inner most thoughts on his personal websites on Thursday. I know many people doubted whether I would play competitive golf again, and to be honest even I wasn't sure. My love for the game never left. It's just that the body would not allow me to play. Now my body is allowing me to do it again. There is great reason for optimism. Well that Christmas feeling gone now there's a fair change you're still enjoying a new gadget or two. You may have been gifted with you own. Andy Scholes is being of the consumer electronic show in Las Vegas, so all this week where he spent some quality time with NBA Hall of Famer and self-proclaimed tech geek Shaquille O'Neal.
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ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: On more than 150,000 people are expected here in Las Vegas over the next 4 days for CES. So there are so many cool new tech products to check out it, a lot of fun. It would maybe be even more fun for me on Wednesday was walking around and checking out all of this stuff with NBA Legend Shaquille O'Neal.
[00:50:10] Now the Shaq the huge tech fan. And he's getting a load down in all kinds of new products including Samsung refrigerator. They had a huge touch screen on the front as Shaq actually use it to Google info out of self which was a pretty fun.
Shaq also try out a gadget on his wrist that helps with free throw forming. We all know Shaq trouble of shoot free throws when he play in the NBA. But hey, here at CES he was making them wow in the crown. And then, we took a break for a second. I seat down with Shaq and asked him. What he loves about the CES?
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SHAQUILLE O'NEAL, NBA PLAYER: I'm big on wearables, I'm big on headphones and big on speakers. I'm just big on checking technology. I like to consider myself a geek. Just love coming here. You know, I just love seeing -- meeting new people, meeting aspirational people. And, you know, just trying to help people get there projects on the ground.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: There are all kind of cool new tech products here at CES. And I was doing a report earlier, I got guy wit by me and I was like, oh, what was that? Well, it turns out here, he was riding on what's called a gyro roll and I have one of those hoverboards at home they have fun with. So, I had to try out the gyro roll (ph).
And I took me a minute or two about to get the hang of it but I tell what, it was a lot of fun. You feel like you're snow boarding or surfing while on it. It could go up to 12 miles per hour. It's going to cause $1,000. And it will be available later on this fall. And who knows this could be the hot new Christmas gift when eventually does come out, back to you.
SNELL: Andy, thank you. Well, a New Year and a new tennis season but can Serena Williams reclaims her world number one man till we'll get the expert use of one of the sports undisputed legends who know more than a thing or two about just that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SNEEL: Welcome to CNN's World Sport. Now, it seems it's not just Roger Federer. Serena Williams needing to shake up some rust a head of the first slam tournament of the tennis season, the Austria Open. While Federer and William lost on Wednesday. Angelique Kerber is out to the Brisbane International additional warmup event ahead to Muldoon.
Kerber holding the world number's one spot right now but Serena Williams would love to get back to gym and try making 48 unforce error as she slip to a 3 set defeat to Elina Svitolina, a huge a shock there. So, what should we expect then in a year ahead and why are we seeing top players being upset so early on in this new campaign. Earlier, Alex Thomas got the thoughts of tennis legend Chris Evert.
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CHRIS EVERT, TENNIS LEGEND: Yeah. It's not a shock unless it would happen in the Australian Open. You know I think that's really, these tournaments are tournaments to really prepare yourself. It is the first tournament of the year. So I think it shows that, you know, these players are probably playing their way into the Australian Open. I think that's the big target where they want to do well, but I think it also shows that the competition is so close and that's the beauty of especially women's tennis right now.
[00:55:05] ALEX THOMAS, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: Yeah. You're talking about the close competition. That Kerber/Williams rivalry is absolutely fascinating. How important is it to the women's game in general to see that?
EVERT: You know rivalries make the sport, you know. I think that when I think back of my rivalry with Martina, we just -- we played over 80 times. And it became something that people wanted to turn on the TV and watch. They wanted to see the outcome, it was so close.
And I think rivalries, especially if there's a contrast and style like Kerber and Serena, a contrast in personalities. I think it makes it for, you know a really interesting TV and drama. So on there I'm really happy that finally somebody has stepped up to challenge Serena Williams. And it is Angelique Kerber.
THOMAS: How interesting for to you talk about a difference in styles. You look at someone in the men's game like Nick Kyrgios who has certainly got a different style to the rest. I mean, you were famous for being pretty sporting on the court. How much do you think just keeping your cool helps you get results at the top level of the game?
EVERT: Well, for me because if you look at me I'm not the athlete that, you know Martina was or Steffi was. I didn't have the strength that they had. I didn't move as quickly as they did, you know. I'm not undermining my athletic ability, but I wasn't, you know I wasn't up at their level.
So I feel like I made up for it in the mental department. You know I stayed cool under pressure. I played every point like it was match point. And it worked for me, but not everybody can do that. Look at John McEnroe. He used to get upset all the time, but he would get upset and then he would get back to the next point and it would be forgotten. So, you know everybody sort has to go along their own personality.
THOMAS: Can you blame the pressure on young players today if they got it harder? Would you like to be starting out in the game today?
EVERT: I think the game is, you know, I think the game right now is bigger business. There's more money. There's more media. There's social media which, you know, you can't do anything in private anymore. Everybody knows everything about your life. I think that adds more pressure, you know. The players travel with entourages of, you know, trainers and coaches and agents. And we didn't have that in our day, you know. It was there was less pressure for sure. So and to answer your question, yeah, I think there is more pressure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SNELL: The Legend Chris Evert, thank so much for joining us. Do stay with CNN.
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