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Outrage around the World over Trump's Slur; Trump and the Porn Star; Documents Released in Vegas Massacre Case; Iran Nuclear Deal; Pakistani Girl's Murderer a Possible Serial Killer; Puerto Ricans Living in Homes without Roofs; Facebook Aiming for Quality over Quantity. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired January 13, 2018 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Demanding an apology: the 55-member African Union infuriated after reports Mr. Trump made a vulgar slur toward Africa. Now the president denies some of those comments.
Documents unsealed after filing a lawsuit. CNN has obtained new details of the Las Vegas shooting investigation, including evidence of who the shooter was exchanging e-mails with.
And your Facebook feed might look a little different today. How that could improve your mental health.
Look forward to hearing that.
We're live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. Welcome to our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Natalie Allen. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
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ALLEN: Our top story, the President of the United States now denies calling some African nations, quote, "shitholes." The comments were reportedly made during a closed-door meeting on immigration in the Oval Office Thursday.
According to one source, Donald Trump is delighted by this controversy. Another source tells CNN some White House staffers believe it plays well with the president's base. But there's plenty of outrage beyond that base. The African Union, which represents all 55 nations of the continent, demand both a retraction and apology from the U.S. president.
Despite the president's denial over exactly what he said regarding both Haiti and Africa, senators who were in the room at the time have confirmed Mr. Trump uttered the offensive term. We get the whole story from our Jim Acosta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today we gather in the White House to honor the memory of a great American hero, the reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a moment filled with sad irony. The same day the president signed a proclamation honoring civil rights hero Martin Luther King, Mr. Trump was dodging questions about his own racially charged rhetoric.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, are you a racist?
ACOSTA (voice-over): The president is running away from comments he made to a bipartisan group of lawmakers on immigration. On the subject of immigrants coming from Africa, the president said, "Why are we having people from all these shithole countries come here?" wondering whether more people could come from Norway.
Later, Mr. Trump questioned the need to protect Haitian immigrants from deportation, saying, "Why do we need more Haitians? Take them out."
MLK's nephew, Isaac Newton Farris Jr., told CNN the president talked to him privately about the controversy.
ISAAC NEWTON FARRIS JR., MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.'S NEPHEW: The president just simply said to me that I'm not the guy that's being described in the media.
ACOSTA: Do you believe him?
FARRIS: I think -- I don't think that President Trump is a racist in the traditional sense as we know in this country. I think President Trump is racially ignorant or racially uninformed. But I don't think that he's a racist in the traditional sense.
ACOSTA (voice-over): The president tried to deny he made the remarks, tweeting, "Never said anything derogatory about Haitians, never said 'Take them out.' Made up by Dems. And the language used by me at the meeting was tough but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made, a big setback."
Democratic senator Dick Durbin, who was at the meeting, said the president is not telling the truth.
SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-ILL.), DEMOCRATIC WHIP: Said things which were hate-filled, vile and racist. When he said Haitians, "Do we need more Haitians?"
And then he went on, when we started to describe the immigration from Africa that was being protected in this bipartisan measure, that's when he used these vile and vulgar comments, calling the nations they come from shitholes.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Two other Republican senators, Tom Cotton and David Purdue, who were also at the meeting, issued a joint statement, saying, "We do not recall the president saying these comments specifically."
But GOP senator Lindsey Graham, who was also there, all but confirmed the remarks, saying in a statement, "Diversity has always been our strength, not our weakness."
The president has a long history of making racially insensitive remarks, from his comments on Mexican immigrants ...
TRUMP: They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists and some, I assume, are good people.
ACOSTA (voice-over): -- to his defense of white supremacist protesters...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are a people.
ACOSTA (voice-over): -- in Charlottesville last year.
TRUMP: You had some very bad people in that group but you also had people that were very fine people on both sides.
ACOSTA (voice-over): The president's latest comments raised questions about past White House denials, that its immigration policy is racially motivated.
ACOSTA: You're trying to engineer the racial and ethnic flow of people into this country.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is one of the most outrageous, insulting, ignorant and foolish things you've ever said.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Now lawmakers from both parties worry the president's remarks could jeopardize talks to reform the nation's immigration system.
REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: I read those comments later last night. So the first thing that came to my mind was very unfortunate, unhelpful.
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ALLEN: The U.S. House Speaker, speaking about the president's comments there on Capitol Hill.
Top House Democrats plan to unveil a congressional resolution next week to censure the president for those disparaging comments. A censure against the president would mean a formal reprimand. Congressman Cedric Richmond said he's leading the charge for that.
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REP. CEDRIC RICHMOND (D), CHAIRMAN, CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS: I think that Congress should state for the record that we find these statements to be horrible, to be disturbing and to be factually incorrect.
So we will introduce a censure resolution. I'm sure that the Republican leadership will maneuver so that we don't have an up or down vote on it.
But we think it's important, not only for America but for the world to know that Donald Trump is not speaking for America when he says statements like that.
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ALLEN: No, he's not.
So how is all of this playing out around the world?
Take a look.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think I find him quite offensive; OK, actually very offensive because I think Africa, most countries in Africa are pretty stable and we are doing good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's not the right thing for him to do. He's the President of the United States of America. We expect more of him. We expect him to be an example. We are growing democracies and we don't expect such remarks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do not agree because, first, it's a downgrade on humanity here because we're not any less of beings. Two is that the U.S. needs those immigrants to help fund the economy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I think Trump will say whatever he wants to say. Trump (INAUDIBLE). He says a lot of things and it's his opinion. And he's entitled to his opinion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What does that mean to call those Africa countries, the black people, shitholes? It's a disgrace.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's terrible. Terrible to say that, if it's true.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no shit immigrants and there is no rich immigrants. I mean, there is immigrants all over the world, who are immigrating because they need to find a better future for them and for their child.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): He's a president who is destabilizing, a president of vulgar words, who is unacceptable. In the name of the Haitian people, we as part of a patriotic emergency that is fighting for real change in Haiti, we demand that Donald Trump apologize before the entire African continent as well as before Haiti.
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ALLEN: Yes, African leaders would like to see an apology as well. This is not a president that usually offers apologies.
CNN's David McKenzie joins us from Johannesburg, South Africa.
You've covered so many countries across Africa for many years, David.
What are you hearing from African leaders about this?
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, from African leaders, certainly shock and outrage and very rare public statements coming about this scandal that has enveloped the White House.
Because Africa is a key -- the countries of Africa are key players when it comes to geopolitics and the relationship with the U.S. Also, many depend on foreign aid coming from the U.S. or business relationships.
So one coming from Botswana, the country to my north, very strident, saying that it was reprehensible and racist. You don't see comments coming like that from governments about the U.S. president very often.
And certainly in this case, you have had ambassadors of African countries to the U.N. using similar language, calling for an apology as well as the African Union, the continent's body.
Just you know, on a personal level, having traveled to so many countries in Africa and seeing how diverse this continent is and how many countries are having economic growth faster than the U.S. and providing immigrants to the U.S. that are, in fact, more educated and more wealthy than the average U.S.-born citizen.
So what Donald Trump said, according to those sources, is not only offensive to many Africans, it's also just incorrect. And people here are going to remember that. And so are governments -- Natalie.
ALLEN: David McKenzie, we thank you for your reporting, David.
Some of President Trump's reported comments specifically disparaged Haiti. The island nation is right now marking eight years since --
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ALLEN: -- the earthquake that killed some 300,000 people.
The Trump administration apparently now wants to remove many of the survivors who fled to the U.S. The Haitian embassy is responding to the controversy by thanking those who offered words of support after the president's remarks. And the embassy says it looks forward to maintaining its longstanding relationship with the U.S.
With us now from Paris with her thoughts is Amy Greene. She's a researcher of American political science and a professor at the French university Sciences Po.
Thank you for joining us, Amy. The U.S. president, he hasn't acted presidential here. He has used vile, repulsive language, it seems to demonstrate racism. Is he hurting the United States globally, that our president is un-
statesmanlike?
AMY GREENE, AUTHOR: Yes. It goes without saying that he's doing no favors to the U.S. image overseas. Of course, there have been polls that have shown that the overall bank of goodwill that foreign populations have for the American people have diminished very little.
So we have a general resource of long-term goodwill and general belief in the goodness of American people. However, Donald Trump is, at best, destabilizing the credibility, undermining the credibility that others believe the United States holds.
So it's always detrimental and at the very minimum, unfortunate, when even when allies cannot trust the word of the President of the United States, can't necessarily expect that the United States wants to remain the stable hand guiding the international order that it worked to set up following World War II.
So of course, Donald Trump, little by little, is eroding the credibility of the United States. It's not just with these latest racist comments. But, of course, we saw this with Paris, the travel ban, any number of issues, you name it, he's sending a negative image about the United States and about its polity overseas.
ALLEN: And let's talk about the destabilizing effect that that could have. The world has long looked up to the United States. You want to come here and have a better life, you are welcome. And that's given so many people something to look to. The United States has been the peacemakers, the war-enders around the world.
Could this be seriously destabilizing?
GREENE: What's difficult is, of course, Donald Trump has said it many times, that he doesn't want adversaries to know what the United States is thinking or what the United States could do at any minute.
What's more detrimental is when the allies don't know that. So of course, you have allies worried about whether or not the United States will hold good on commitments, that it's loyally held up to for the last decade.
You know, of course, where it becomes destabilizing is effectively the lack of luster and the lack of belief in the American dream. Lindsey Graham said -- you can read it in some press reports lately -- that, you know, the United States, as he would have explained to the president, isn't its people; it's the ideal.
I would argue that it's in fact both. The ideal of the United States has been able to make it the leading attraction point for immigrants nationally, for foreign students nationally, who are already starting to see those numbers suffer.
So United States is of course an idea. But it's also the extraordinary people in the United States. And the fact that an American isn't just a fixed and frozen image, it's necessarily the composition or a composite of the entire world.
So it's that creativity and diversity that makes the strength of America. Of course, the president disagrees, you know, and is playing to his base and is committing moral violence when he attacks whole countries, when he qualifies countries and changes the debate such that we have to defend that, in fact, the countries that he's targeting are places of worth, which, I think, is the wrong debate to even be having.
ALLEN: Right. You wonder if this will silence the U.S. as a voice of moral authority around the world.
But I want to ask you, Republican leaders have been quite mute since he said this vile remark. You would think this is something that would transcend politics. But it does not seem that is the case. So the question is how this could hurt Republicans down the line.
Certainly, Americans have a low opinion of Congress, as far as both parties.
GREENE: Right. Well, we'll have to see in the midterms and we need to see what the Democrats do in the leadup to the 2018 midterms.
You know, are they going to be putting candidates everywhere?
Will they be fighting for every contested race?
Are they really going to go for it in a 50-state strategy?
So we have to put our faith in the American people as to how they are going to decide who they're going to give control --
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GREENE: -- of Congress to later this year. Of course, the question of U.S. credibility, we've been ceding it little by little. France was the number one top power in the world this year, based on a number of indications.
And so United States lost the top spot for the first time in a number of years. So we see that little by little effectively that the presidential tone is degrading the U.S. image. But then, again, what we seem to be seeing with some comments like this is Trump acting according to what Bannon said in Michael Wolff's most recent book, he said regarding the travel ban. Of course, they announced the travel ban on the day that would attract the most protesters and cause the most trouble because they wanted to bring the Left out and push them left, as a way to separate them even farther from the Right.
So clearly, we're looking at a president and a presidency which is absolutely adamant on further dividing the country.
The question is, will Democrats resist that by placing candidates everywhere?
And will the American people mobilize in these midterm elections to send a message to the president that, no, this is, in fact, not the ideology and not the core values that the United States wishes to accept, both domestically and abroad.
ALLEN: It will be interesting to see where these midterm elections go later this year. Amy Greene from Paris for us, thank you.
GREENE: Thank you, Natalie.
Meantime, the White House and President Trump's lawyer are pushing back against a potentially damaging new report from "The Wall Street Journal." Here's our Tom Foreman with that.
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TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The big new claim in "The Wall Street Journal" is this. A woman was paid $130,000 a month before the presidential election to keep quiet about a sexual encounter with Donald Trump.
According to this story, Trump had this encounter with an adult film star, who goes by the name Stormy Daniels, in 2006 at a celebrity golf tournament. "The Journal" says this new report of hush money comes from people familiar with the matter.
But the president's longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, is hitting back hard, saying, "These rumors have circulated time and again since 2011. President Trump once again vehemently denies any such occurrence, as has Ms. Daniels."
Cohen did not directly address the idea of a payment but he did give CNN a statement he says is from Stormy Daniels, saying, "My involvement with Donald Trump was limited to a few public appearances and nothing more.
"When I met Donald Trump, he was gracious, professional and a complete gentleman to me and everyone in my presence. Rumors that I have received hush money from Donald Trump are completely false.
If, indeed, I did have a relationship with Donald Trump, trust me, you wouldn't be reading about it in the news. You would be reading about it in my book. But the fact of the matter is, these stories are not true," she says.
CNN has tried to reach Ms. Daniels for independent confirmation. We've not spoken to her yet. And Trump's lawyer Cohen has not provided contact information for her.
If the alleged event did nonetheless take place, it would have occurred the year after he married now first lady, Melania Trump. The White House, however, is calling this old, recycled news, strongly denied prior to the election.
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ALLEN: We have this story from Milwaukee. A scary situation on a Greyhound bus that was heading from Milwaukee to Chicago. One of the passengers called police Friday, saying a fellow rider had a gun and was threatening to kill people.
Police located the bus and chased it until it finally stopped. Police got everyone out safely and took a man into custody; 40 passengers were on board. No one was injured, we're happy to say. And, as you can see, traffic on that highway backed up for miles.
I misspoke; it wasn't in Milwaukee, it was in Illinois.
New developments in the October massacre in Las Vegas. Hundreds of pages of court documents were released Friday. It comes after CNN and other outlets sued to have the documents unsealed.
They offer some insight into what investigators are looking into, how gunman Steve Paddock carried out the shooting from his hotel room and how investigators are trying to determine a motive.
Among the documents, discussions about mysterious e-mail exchanges between Paddock and someone months before the shooting. CNN's Sara Sidner spoke earlier about it with our Jim Sciutto.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: There's a note in these warrants that says on July 6th, 2017 -- and you'll remember this shooting was October 1st -- there are e-mails between two accounts. One that the federal government says definitely belongs, they believe, to the shooter.
Another one that they're not sure whether it's his second account and he's e-mailing himself back and forth or whether it belongs to someone else and they are very clear in saying if it belongs to someone else, we need to find out who this is.
Let me read you what --
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SIDNER: -- they say are in those e-mails. The e-mail sent to the shooter says, try an AR before you buy. We have a huge selection located in the Las Vegas area. Then sends back to him later on that day, says we have a wide variety of optics and ammunition to try and talks about trying out a bump stock.
That is the device that makes a gun very close to an automatic weapon. It works very similar to an automatic weapon. So those are revelations and it does seem odd that he would be e-mailing that to himself, so investigators clearly looking to figure out who that other person may be.
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ALLEN: Well, 58 people were killed in the massacre. Hundreds wounded. It is the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history.
Coming up here, in Pakistan, protesters demanding justice and answers for a little girl, whose rape and brutal murder rocked the country.
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ALLEN: Chinese officials say they have found two more bodies on the burning oil tanker drifting in waters between Shanghai and Japan. Rescuers have been searching for the ship's 32 crew members since it collided with a freighter last week. Three bodies have now been recovered.
While searching the ship, rescuers also found the voyage data recorder. The tanker was carrying 136,000 tons of oil from Iran to South Korea, when it collided with the freighter January 6th.
U.S. president Donald Trump says he's giving the Iran nuclear deal one last chance. He announced Friday he's waiving sanctions on the deal but won't do it again unless changes are made. Here's more of what he said in a statement.
"I am waiving the application of certain nuclear sanctions but only in order to secure our European allies' agreement to fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal. This is a last chance."
Iran's foreign minister responded to that on Twitter.
He said, "The joint comprehensive plan of action is not renegotiable. Rather than repeating tired rhetoric, the U.S. must bring itself into full compliance, just like Iran."
The United States has long used sanctions to try and curb Iran's activities. Here's what U.S. secretary of state Rex Tillerson said about that in an interview with CNN.
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TILLERSON: But Iran's support for the Houthis in Yemen, their support for destabilization efforts in Syria, the funding of militias, the sitting of foreign fighters, arming terrorist organizations in the region, Lebanese Hezbollah, that has to be dealt with.
And our sanctions are targeted at Iran's destabilizing activities within the region while still maintaining all our efforts to ensure Iran never acquires nuclear weapons.
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ALLEN: Mr. Trump also announced new Iran sanctions Friday, not directly tied to the nuclear deal. They argument 14 Iranians and Iranian entities, including the head of Iran's judiciary. Iran's foreign ministry said that move warrants a severe response.
Police in Pakistan are on the hunt for the person who raped and murdered and tossed onto a trash heap a 7-year-old girl. The murder of Zainab Amin brought out hundreds to honor her memory and to demand justice. Many people accused the government of not doing enough to protect children. Our Alexandra Field is in Pakistan.
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ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Zainab Amin's family is demanding justice and they are joined by people across Pakistan, who took part in demonstrations that turned deadly, as frustrations were vented in the recent days since the death of this 7-year-old girl.
Her body was found dumped on a pile of trash. Police say, before she was murdered, she was raped, tortured and sodomized. It's a pattern that fits a number of other crimes in the city of Kasur in Eastern Pakistan. Authorities say there have been attacks on a dozen young girls.
Now one official from Punjab says it appears that there could be a serial killer and they say they've discovered DNA links between six of the murders. Officials say they are still trying to find Zainab's killer, though they have taken some suspects into custody. They say they're determined to bring this person to justice.
But Zainab's family says the police haven't done enough. They say they're the ones who went out and found the CCTV video that shows some of the last moments of Zainab's life. She's seen in that video with an unknown person on the same day that she disappeared from her family's home.
Zainab's family has also now released the final page in her journal.
It reads, "Myself, I am a girl. My name is Zainab. My father's name is Amin. I am 7 years old. I live in Kasur."
Zainab's death, the attacks on a dozen girls have gripped this country's attention. In a powerful move, a news presenter here in Pakistan appeared on TV, calling for justice for Zainab, calling for justice for all of the victims, with her own small daughter seated in her lap -- in Islamabad, Alexandra Field, CNN.
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ALLEN: President Trump's reported remarks about some developing countries shocked people around the world. But we'll focus on the inspiring story of this Haitian immigrant, whose graduation into a military career in the U.S., as you can see, left him in tears. That's coming up.
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ALLEN: And welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, live from Atlanta. We welcome our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. I'm Natalie Allen. Here are our top stories. (HEADLINES)
ALLEN: Meantime, the U.S. military has a history of accepting immigrants from countries like Haiti, that President Trump reportedly disparaged. Well, one of those servicemen Is Alix Idrache, seen right there. CNN's Barbara Starr has more on this exceptional West Point grad and someone who also represents this nation.
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BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Haitian immigrant Alix Idrache had only been in the United States seven years when he graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in May 2016.
And, as you see from this photo, tears rolling down his cheeks, something this young man could never have really envisioned until he was so determined to make a life for himself.
His father in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, determined that his children would have a better life than he did in that very impoverished country. Alix coming to the United States, joining the Maryland National Guard and then getting selected to attend West Point.
When he graduated, he had top ranking as a physics student, went on his desire was to go to the U.S. Army Flight School. And when he graduated, he had a posting on social media that I want to read to you.
It is so moving, Alix saying, and I quote, "Knowing that one day I will be a pilot is humbling beyond words. I could not help but be flooded with emotions, knowing that I will be leading these men and women, who are willing to give their all to preserve what we value as the American way of life.
"To me, that is the greatest honor."
And of course it is worth remembering, every single day, the U.S. military is an all-volunteer force. Alix and so many other immigrants come to this country and volunteer to join the military, serve the country, serve their commander in chief and, possibly, risk it all, making the ultimate sacrifice in war.
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STARR: This young man, again, graduating from West Point near the top of his class in physics and going on to have his military career -- Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
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ALLEN: Yes, again, that man's family from Haiti, a country the U.S. president disparaged in that vulgar remark he used.
Well, many of Mr. Trump's supporters in the U.S. are willing to give him a pass for that. But they also admit the president is far from perfect. Our Gary Tuchman reports from one of Mr. Trump's electoral strongholds in Alabama.
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GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Are you ready?
BOB HOLLINGSWORTH, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Ready. Ready to get brave.
TUCHMAN: The Rack and Roll billiards bar in Aniston, Alabama is in the heart of Trump country. And Bob Hollingsworth (ph) is a loyal Republican who voted for Donald Trump.
Bob -- I want to ask you. Overall, what do you think of the job Donald Trump is doing so far?
HOLLINGSWORTH: I would give him overall a seven -- seven out of ten.
TUCHMAN: He doesn't get a higher grade, says Hollingsworth, because of some of his personal behavior, including what he just said.
HOLLINGSWORTH: He used shithole countries.
TUCHMAN: So what do you think of the President using that term?
HOLLINGSWORTH: We could have done better there, but I think he talked more so in terms of voicing that against the leadership of the country more so than the people of the country.
TUCHMAN: Right. But the fact that he used that word at all to describe a country in any way, shape, or form --
HOLLINGSWORTH: Not presidential -- no. Not presidential -- shouldn't have done it. TUCHMAN: We found that to be a common sentiment in downtown Aniston
among people who generally admire the President.
Rodney Perser (ph) works in a restaurant.
With the President using that word, how do you feel about that?
RODNEY PERSER, TRUMP SUPPORTER: He should have been more professional about it. He shouldn't have used that word.
TUCHMAN: And as far as the restaurant customers go --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that that was unprofessional and I would think that that shows a little bit of lack of morals.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Probably unpresidential.
TUCHMAN: Gene Robinson feels a bit differently, though. The store owner is a former mayor of Aniston and isn't even a registered Republican, but strongly defends the President.
GENE ROBINSON, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I don't think that he would have intentionally insulted any country and that just came out of his mouth and that's the way he operates. He operates from the hip.
TUCHMAN: So you think it was a mistake he said that?
ROBINSON: Yes, I do.
TUCHMAN: You don't think he's being derogatory towards any country?
ROBINSON: I don't think he's being derogatory towards anyone.
TUCHMAN: Back at the billiards hall, Bob Hollingsworth rejects accusations the President is racist.
Do you think that he ever would have said that about a country that is mostly white? The countries he said that about are mostly black.
HOLLINGSWORTH: Well, that's a good point.
TUCHMAN: Could it affect you when you vote in 2020? Could it make you say maybe I'm not going to vote for Donald Trump this time?
HOLLINGSWORTH: Crude, but I can live with it.
TUCHMAN: Gary Tuchman, CNN -- Aniston, Alabama.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: Three months after hurricanes ravaged Puerto Rico, many people still have no roof over their head.
Why is that?
We report.
Plus, your Facebook page is about to change. And apparently, the company says the goal is to boost all of our well-being.
How so?
Well, that's ahead, too. Stay with us.
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ALLEN: For three months now, people in hurricane-hit Puerto Rico have been picking up the pieces of their tattered homes. More than 70,000 have applied for a professionally installed tarp or Blue Roof, because they still don't have a roof. They applied for it from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
But a CNN investigation has found tens of thousands are still waiting for one. Here's CNN's John Sutter. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking Spanish).
JOHN SUTTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hector's childhood home was torn apart when Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico more than three months ago. He still doesn't have a roof.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking Spanish).
SUTTER (voice-over): By the door when we visit in mid-December is this piece of yellow paper. It says Hector applied for a free and professionally installed tarp from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. At the time, the Corps says it's installing about 500 tarps per day.
But keeping them honest, an CNN investigation finds the program has left tens of thousands of people like Hector waiting.
Only 20 miles from his home is this room, full of 20,000 tarps. When we visit, they sit idle, waiting to be delivered.
Our analysis shows more than 70,000 people have asked for Blue Roofs as of December 18th. Yet three months after Hurricane Maria, only about a third have received them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ability to bring materials to the island is a little bit different from being able to truck it from one state to another or from one county to another. The warehouse full of roof is evidence that we've been able to overcome at least one part of that challenge.
SUTTER (voice-over): A bid dispute in December, which was first reported by CNN, temporarily slowed installations. But two attorneys tell us there was no legal reason for delay while that dispute was resolved, especially given the emergency on the ground in Puerto Rico.
The Army Corps' own guidelines say people should get Blue Roofs within two weeks of a date they apply for them.
In October, we meet Carmen. She says she broke her arm trying to sweep water out of her living room.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking Spanish).
SUTTER (voice-over): The Army Corps determined Carmen was eligible for a Blue Roof. But when we visit two months later, she's still waiting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking Spanish).
SUTTER (voice-over): Back in San Lorenzo, we show Hector an image of all those tarps sitting in a Puerto Rican warehouse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking Spanish). [05:45:00]
SUTTER (voice-over): John Sutter, CNN, Puerto Rico.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: We'll update you on that story when and if it changes.
Emergency workers are in a race against the clock, searching for miracles in Montecito, California. They hope to find five people, missing since violent mudslides tore through the area Tuesday. At least 18 people were killed. Rescuers discovered the latest victim on Friday, an 87-year-old man found in his home.
At the other end of the country, another brutal round of winter weather is slamming the Northeast.
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ALLEN: OK. He's just 20 years old and, thanks to buying a lottery ticket at this gas station last week in Florida, he now has over $200 million. We're going to tell you what he plans to do with it, when we come back.
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[05:50:00]
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ALLEN: A 20-year-old man in Florida has become a mega millionaire, virtually overnight. Shane Missler is his name. And he bought the winning ticket in last week's $450 million Mega Millions drawing at this store, convenience store in Port Richey, Florida.
He's now come forward to claim his prize by taking the cash option. He walks away with almost $282 million.
What's he going to do with it?
He says he's planning on doing something good for humanity.
And we all welcome that, don't we?
Facebook wants to focus on the quality of its users' connections. The social network kicked off that effort by shaking up the news feed. Users will now see more content from friends and family, over posts from publishers and brands.
Yay!
CNN senior tech correspondent Laurie Segall explains why that's important.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAURIE SEGALL, CNNMONEY TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, I think it's a big deal because the tweak of an algorithm at Facebook will impact 2 billion people. It has an enormous reach and we've also seen the negative impact of Facebook over the last year.
We've looked at the weaponization of the platform to interfere with the U.S. election. We are now seeing mental health studies come out that show us continued scrolling and not interacting can actually be bad for our mental health
So Mark Zuckerberg has a lot of problems he has to fix when it comes to the platform. It was his New Year's resolution to fix Facebook. This is part one of that . I actually had the opportunity to sit down with the V.P. of news feed and he told me they want to emphasize quality over quantity. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADAM MOSSERI, FACEBOOK VICE PRESIDENT OF NEWSFEED: So the idea is to try and focus more on bringing people together by trying to put more emphasis on facilitating more meaningful social interactions between people.
And the way we do that in ranking is to value things like commenting or writing a long comment more and valuing things like how long we might think you -- how long you think you might watch a video for less. And so as a result, the ecosystem will shift.
SEGALL: Could that lead to less daily active users?
MOSSERI: I think -- I mean, anything is always possible. In this case, we haven't seen that people come to Facebook less often.
We do see that people spend a little bit less time on Facebook but we think that if we are creating an experience that people are finding meaningful, that over the long run they're going to use the experience of the platform more, that would be good both for people and for the business.
SEGALL: You guys have fallen into some uncomfortable editorial questions in the last year whether it's the weaponization of the platform or just hate speech and all of these real philosophical ethical questions that come with becoming a worldwide --
[05:55:00]
SEGALL: -- platform. So is this trying to take a step away from those uncomfortable editorial questions?
MOSSERI: I don't think there's any future in which we are not having difficult conversations about sticky issues. And so I don't think this --
SEGALL: Increasingly, though, right? MOSSERI: Yes. And that's because the -- a lot of people use our platform every single day and it's an important part of the way people communicate and consume information. And so I think along with that comes a lot of attention and scrutiny and this ranking change isn't going to change that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SEGALL: You know, what I think we'll have to look for is does the algorithm reward comments that just provoke a reaction?
Could that be negative as well?
And I think a lot of people are worried. A lot of publishers are worried because they rely on Facebook for eyeballs. This could demote a lot of the content we see with videos and businesses and brands.
So it remains to be seen what this will do to the business. But I would say it's interesting to see tech leaders take a stronger stance on the humanitarian issue of technology and what it's doing to us as human beings, what it's doing to democracy, what it's doing to mental health. Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: In Saudi Arabia, a major milestone for females. For the first time, women have been allowed to attend a men's soccer match. Stadiums in three Saudi cities will now be open to women.
This is the latest move toward a more open society in the kingdom. Earlier this week, the first car show aimed at women was held. And beginning in June, women will be officially allowed to drive.
It's about time.
That's CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen. Thanks for watching. For U.S. viewers, "NEW DAY" is up next. For everyone else, stay with us for "AMANPOUR."
