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Trump On the Attack Against Carson and Bush; Russian Plane's Tail Found Five Kilometers Away from Rest of Debris; Investigating a Fiery Air Crash; Ohio Votes No on Legalizing Recreational Marijuana; Jon Stewart Signs Multi-Year HBO Production Deal; U.S. Regulators Hit Japan's Takata Corporation; Historic Meeting for China, Taiwan Presidents'; Yemen Flooding, Mudslides After Cyclone; Wet Weather Due to El Nino Weather Pattern. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired November 04, 2015 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:12] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM. Live from Los Angeles.

Ahead this hour, the mystery deepens for exactly what caused a Russian passenger jet to crash.

Donald Trump goes on the attack with new polls showing him slipping further behind his main Republican rival.

And the latest attempt to legalize recreational marijuana in the U.S. Midwest goes up in smoke.

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. The second hour of NEWSROOM L.A. begins now.

And we'll start with the race for the White House and a new poll shows a dead heat between the top Democrat and Republican if the election were held today. The NBC-"Wall Street Journal" survey shows Ben Carson and Hillary Clinton tied at 47 percent each. Clinton fares better against all other Republicans including Donald Trump who is back on the attack after losing his frontrunner status.

Sara Murray has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ben Carson tightening his grip on his frontrunner status. Twenty-nine percent of GOP voters nationwide support Carson in the latest NBC News-"Wall Street Journal" poll. A six-point lead over Donald Trump.

DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our strength is in our unity. And we need to stop listening to the purveyors of division for trying to make us think that there's a war going on with everything.

MURRAY: Taken together, the two outsiders dominate the field, drawing 52 percent support.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you add Ben and myself, we are beating everybody by a lot. That seems to be the big story.

CARSON: I continue to do what I've been doing.

MURRAY: Carson's gains coming as he travels the country promoting his book. Not to be outdone, Trump celebrated his own book release today. And took a swipe at the man on top of the polls.

TRUMP: He's a different kind of a person. My book is very hard- hitting. You look at Ben, he's very weak on immigration. And he wants to get rid of Medicare.

MURRAY: Training his fire on another rival, Trump predicted Jeb Bush doesn't have what it takes to win the White House.

TRUMP: Can Jeb make a comeback? I think it's going to be very hard.

MURRAY: And said it's time for some of his GOP opponents to give up the fight.

(On camera): Do you think it's time for some of the Republicans in the field to drop out?

TRUMP: If a person's been campaigning four or five months and they're at zero or 1 percent or 2 percent, they should get out.

MURRAY (voice-over): With the candidates now at odds with each other over how to move forward with their debates, President Obama is mocking the entire field.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you can't handle those guy guys? You know then I don't think the Chinese and Russians are going to be too worried about you.

MURRAY: Well, Trump complains it's the Democrats that have it easy.

TRUMP: Hillary Clinton, no tough questions. I mean, why didn't they ask about Bill? Why didn't they ask about all of the different things? Hillary had only softballs all night long. It was like this, yes, Hillary, hit this one over the park.

MURRAY (on camera): Now we'll see whether Donald Trump keeps up his fiery tone in a more traditional campaign setting on Wednesday. He'll be on New Hampshire where he's filing his paperwork to officially appear on the ballot.

Sara Murray, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Joining me now is CNN political commentator Peter Beinart, also contributing editor for Atlantic Media.

So, Peter, I guess if we wanted to know how Donald Trump would deal with no longer being the frontrunner and coming in at number two, we now know and he doesn't deal with this very well because this is so crucial to his shtick, that he's a winner. If he's not a winner, he's got some problems.

PETER BEINART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. His attacks on Ben Carson have been really scattered. I mean, first he attacked his religion, which I thought was bizarre and offensive. Now he kind of mentioned that Carson is weak on immigration and mentioned the Medicare comment. But he seems to be just throwing out a whole bunch of different stuff. And this is the way Donald Trump is. He kind of improvises. It's very hard to see what the actual strategy is in some of this stuff.

VAUSE: But he gets up there and one of his -- one of the attractions for many of his supporters is here's a guy who knows how to win, he's a guy who knows how to make a deal. Look, he's popular. He's been in this race and he's out front, and he's the guy who, you know, everyone should be following because he's, you know, the number one guy. But as the number one guy suddenly becomes the number two guy, what sort of problems does that present for him going forward? Because as he loses the entire reason -- you know, the entire appeal of his campaign.

BEINART: Well, he has a bate base of voters. And I think they are non-college educated, but more secular voters. Carson is doing very well with evangelicals. That's not Trump's base. But the people who are supporting him were the same group of voters who tend to support Ross Perot, Pat Buchanan, people who are economically, maybe very, very frustrated, but not so focused on the Republican cultural or religious agenda. I think Trump still, right now, has a base of those supporters.

[01:05:07] VAUSE: OK. You mentioned he's sort of gone after Carson, it's been sort of a little bit scattered, a little soft, I guess, if you can compare it to the other attacks. He's really gone after Rubio who is coming up from behind. And there were some comments that Trump made to Bloomberg which I thought were quite interesting. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think he's a highly overrated person. I've called him a lightweight. I think he's a lightweight. I hope I'm wrong about that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Does he have a chance?

TRUMP: But we can't have -- I don't think he has -- look, you know why he has a chance? Because guys like you, and I'm not specifically referring to you, but --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: To be honest, you a little bit. But I watched somebody on Joe's show this morning. It's fawning off him, he says how handsome he is. How good -- I don't know, I think I'm better looking than he is. Am I better looking than him?

(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Yes. This is kind of classic Donald Trump. It's funny. But when does this sort of insult throwing, when does this -- you know, when does this start to wear thin?

BEINART: I don't know. I mean, he's been doing it since he entered the race now, you know, several months ago. And although he's dropped a little bit and Carson has risen, you know, people know that his shtick is like this now.

I think, to me, the bigger story is why isn't Rubio rising in the polls more given the fact that the, you know, Republican elites have really been fawning all over him, especially since that debate performance? What's striking to me is when you look at the national polls and even these polls in the early states, you still see this disconnect between a political elite which is talking about Rubio as now the frontrunner and a guy who is still way behind Carson and Trump in the polls.

VAUSE: You sound like you agree with Donald Trump. I mean, he doesn't -- he's sort of, I don't get it, everyone is fawning over the guy, it turns up he's -- everyone says how good looking he is. I mean, do you have something in common there with Trump?

BEINART: One of the -- the big story of this Republican campaign is the huge disconnect between Republican donors who love Marco Rubio, who are getting behind Marco Rubio and ordinary Republican voters who still are sticking with Trump and Carson, despite the fact that the Republican establishment thinks the idea nominating either of these guys is insane.

VAUSE: OK. Well, the other one the establishment -- at least they're behind for a while, Jeb Bush, continually mocked by Trump. Trump really got under his skin. He's rebooted his campaign. He's trying to fire it up. He did an interview with CNN and he sort of tried to hit it back at Trump. Listen to some of what he had to say to us earlier tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's run for president twice and quit. And I've run for governor in the biggest swing state and won twice. I know how to win. I've done it. I actually know how to govern which is going to be an attribute when we get closer to the elections.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So for the record, for Donald Trump, you're not quitting?

(LAUGHTER)

BUSH: No. I mean, what -- do we have to talk about Donald Trump? No, I'm not quitting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Do we have to talk about Donald Trump? And the sad fact is, yes, we do, because the guy continues to suck up the oxygen. But is it almost too late now for Jeb Bush to try and make that connection with voters? I mean, this has been going on for such a long time. He's gone from -- you know, frontrunner status with all the money now. He's (INAUDIBLE) percent. That's not budging. Pretty much nationally and even in many of the states. It's around the same level. Is he out of time?

BEINART: I think it's pretty close. I mean, what's remarkable is he's been running these ads. I mean, they've taken this money, they're putting it into ads. It was specifically designed to start bringing him up in the polls. They haven't worked. His message is entirely wrong for where the Republican mood is now. The Republican Party is in a very, very anti-establishment mood. And he no matter what he said is Mr. Establishment. His father was president and his brother was president. And so I really think that he's not been able to tap into where Republican voters are right now.

VAUSE: Do you think he's been sort of one step behind in this campaign?

BEINART: Look, he's a bad politician. He has very little charisma. He's not a good speaker, he doesn't have a clear message. If his name were not Jeb Bush and he had not been able to raise huge sums of money based on his father's and his brother's kind of donor network, we would not have been talking about it in the first place. It's an incredible sense of entitlement that this man thought that he could parachute into the front of the presidential campaign based essentially on raising money off his father and his brother.

VAUSE: And knock all the others fairly soon. Peter, thanks for coming in.

BEINART: Thank you.

VAUSE: Peter Beinart being with us here in Los Angeles.

OK. And Donald Trump will be a guest on "NEW DAY." That's 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time here in the United States. You will hear the Donald at least at 7:00 in the morning only here on CNN.

And we move on now. Investigators in the Sinai Peninsula are wrapping up their field work on Metrojet Flight 9268. But the clues are still not adding up to one single explanation.

Russian state media report the plane's tail was found five kilometers, about three miles from the rest of the debris. That could further show the plane broke apart in midair. Meantime, a St. Petersburg newspaper reports that some bodies at the back of the plane showed trauma from an explosion. But investigators say they found no traces of an explosive device in the wreckage.

[01:10:010] Let's get more now, Nic Robertson live at St. Petersburg. That's where the plane was heading before it crashed.

And, Nic, let's get into these reports in the Russian media which have come out in the last couple of hours about the bodies and the trauma which they suffered. Can you explain exactly what that might mean in terms of an explanation as to the crash?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Absolutely. I mean, it does seem that the question about what was heard on the cockpit voice recorder, this unexpected sound, this sound that caused an event that caused the plane to go down rapidly before the air crew could issue an emergency, seems to be centering on one of two things, either a bomb on board or that the tail section that had been hit in a prior crash that had been potentially photographed as recently as May this year showing the potential for that tail -- for the repair not to appear as solid as it had been mechanically assessed, that perhaps that the tail of the aircraft broke off because of the prior accident of the airplane.

But what we are hearing from a St. Petersburg newspaper, the oldest newspaper here, one that is very widely respected, is that they're hearing from their sources that the types of injuries that the passengers received in this aircraft, those at the front have burn and trauma injuries they say, indicative of falling from the sky. Those at the back of the aircraft or the other part of the aircraft, they implied the back therefore, have explosive injuries, injuries that have -- show that there are metal fragments impacted inside their bodies.

Now we've also heard from the TASS news agency, state news agency here in Russia, that says tests for explosive residue on the bodies that they've tested so far have come back negative and that the bodies that they -- that have been tested as of earlier yesterday had already come back showing no indications of explosive impact on those bodies. So these -- what we're hearing from the St. Petersburg newspaper, what we're hearing from TASS, they don't add up. And Russian officials here at the moment caution that we really have to wait until we get to the end of the investigation before conclusions can be drawn.

But, of course, here in St. Petersburg, this is where the families are identifying the bodies. There are forensic experts we know working with those bodies here. It's reasonable in the sort of way that sources operate for journalists inside Russia that potentially the St. Petersburg newspaper has some close sources to the forensic teams that are doing the investigation here. But it really is conjecture at this stage. But we can see the way the Russian media is reporting this story, these are the two central lines of thought, potential bomb, potential tail area breaking off from the aircraft -- John.

VAUSE: Wow. All this, of course, just speculation for the families -- the victims of this flight, not easy for them to be going through all of this.

Nic, thank you. Nic Robertson live there in St. Petersburg.

And the fiery air crash on Saturday has some similarities with another air disaster. This one off the coast of Long Island, New York, in 1996.

Kyung Lah has more on the similar circumstances and the rumors surrounding both tragedies -- Kyung.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Metrojet crash in Egypt killing all 224 onboard feels eerily familiar to another major disaster. The 1996 explosion of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island. Peter Goelz was one of the chief NTSB investigators of that disaster. Like the Metrojet crash, satellite imagery captured a mid-air heat signature.

PETER GOELZ, FORMER NTSB INVESTIGATOR: We had that same occurrence at TWA Flight 800. A satellite picked up a signature and it indicated, it confirmed for us what eyewitnesses had seen that there was a fireball.

LAH: But it didn't explain why. It was simply a clue. Also shared between the two disasters, unexplained, split-second sounds on the flight data recorders before they stopped recording. The similarities leave Goelz to believe a possible rupture in the fuel tank which caused the TWA crash may also be to blame in the Russian plane disaster.

Investigators found much of the main debris field close together. But three miles away was the tail section. That holds another clue. Possible structural failure. In November 2001, the Airbus' tail hit the tarmac on landing. The plane was repaired. But the clear break from the rest of the debris raises this possibility.

GOELZ: It could have been a structural failure of the plane that ruptured the fuel tanks. So the explosion could've been coming after whatever the event that initiated the breakup.

[01:15:04] LAH: Flight tracking data shows the plane did slow down significantly before the crash. But many outside experts discount a stall. A stall can prove disastrous like this one in 2013. The 747 cargo plane left Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. It stalled and crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all seven Americans on board.

The heat signature clue could also signal some sort of fire damage in the cargo hold. In 1996, ValuJet Flight 592 took off with emergency oxygen generators improperly stored that caused a fire. And it crashed.

GOELZ: It could have been something going on in the cargo hold. We don't know what they were carrying. Investigators will look at all of those likely suspects. Until they start eliminating them, it's going to be a mystery.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAH: Also important is that this investigation be transparent. In the absence of that, the result is that the flying public grows more concerned and also there are growing conspiracy theories -- John.

VAUSE: Kung, thank you.

Well, Iran's chant of death to America has been around for decades. But now the country's supreme leader is saying, don't take it literally. On his Twitter account, Ayatollah Ali Khomeini says, "Down with U.S. does not mean death to the American nation. The slogan means death to American policies. Death to arrogance." Khomeini has emphasized Iran and the U.S. have not normalized relations despite that landmark nuclear deal. Nothing personal.

Ohio voters reject legalizing marijuana and -- for medical and recreational use. The details on this controversial measure are just ahead.

Also, comedian and former "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart is taking his talent back to cable television. Those details, still to come.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORTS: I'm Don Riddell with your CNN World Sport headlines.

It's been another great night for the two Manchester football clubs in the latest match day of the Champions League. Manchester City's highly impressive 3-1 victory in Sevilla means the City has qualified for the last 16. They got off to a blistering start when Raheem Sterling and Fernandinho putting them in the driving seat after 10 minutes. City make it out of the group with two games to spare.

And Manchester United atop of their group, too, after Wayne Rooney repaid his manager Louis van Gaal's faith in him by scoring the winner at home to CSKA Moscow.

And one of the night's other big games, Real Madrid saw off Paris Saint-Germain to qualify for the knockout round for the 19th consecutive year. It was Nacho Fernandez who made the difference, he was on as a sub for the injured Marcelo and is he scored the winner just two minutes later, 1-0 the final score.

On Wednesday night in the Champions League, the focus turns to Chelsea and their embattled manager Jose Mourinho.

[01:20:03] The Blues are at home to Dynamo Kyiv. They've lost three games in the last 10 days and it's been rumored that some of the players are in revolt against their manager. Cesc Fabregas has taken to social media to deny that he is involved and the club captain John Terry has also denied a mutiny. Mourinho himself calls the rift allegations sad.

That is a quick look at your sports headlines. I'm Don Riddell.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: In the United States, authorities are expecting to announce the death of a police officer in Fox Lake, Illinois, back in September was suicide. Police launched a massive manhunt after Lieutenant Joe Gliniewicz was found shot to death in a wooded area. He had radioed ahead -- he radioed just a short time earlier, rather, saying he was chasing three suspects. A law enforcement official says reports by the FBI and the medical examiner's office all point to suicide. And in Houston, Texas, voters just repealed a law designed to protect

lesbian, gay and transgender people from discrimination. The Senate passed the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, also known as HERO, last year. And conservative activists spent millions trying to get rid of it. Well, it warned it would allow, quote, "troubled men" to go into women's public bathrooms, showers and locker rooms. But supporters of the law called that fear-mongering against transgender men and women. The city's mayor spoke out after the vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNISE PARKER, HOUSTON CITY MAYOR: I have been an activist for more than 40 years. I have stood here in Houston four times when people were given the opportunity to vote on my right. No one's rights should be subject to a popular vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The voting also in Ohio on Tuesday, and they said a big no to legal pot, rejecting a statewide initiative to legalize marijuana for recreational and medical use.

Details from Stephanie Elam.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, voters in Ohio decided to pass on legalizing marijuana. This was the first time in the country voters had the chance to legalize medical and recreational marijuana use at the same time. Called Issue Three on the ballot it would have given commercial growing rights to just 10 predetermined farms owned by investors backing the campaign to legalize the cash crop.

TV and music star Nick Lachey, NFL player Frostee Rucker, fashion designer Nanette Lepore and even President William Taft's great-great grandnephews were all poised to cash in if the amendment passed. But the initiative had an uphill battle with some Ohioans who support legalization saying Issue Three wasn't the way to go since it would line the pockets of so few. There was also Issue Two on the ballot, an anti-monopoly countermeasure specifically designed to defeat Issue Three.

Ohio would have been the fifth state to legalize recreational marijuana and the 24th to legalize medical marijuana -- John.

VAUSE: Stephanie, thank you.

California could also have a marijuana ballot measure next year. Former Facebook president Sean Parker is backing an initiative that would make the drug legal for recreational use for adults 21 and older. The state would collect 15 percent sales tax, also a tax to marijuana growers. Some of the proceeds would fund anti-drug programs for kids. Supporters need to get hundreds of thousands of signatures to get the proposition on to the 2016 ballot.

The comedian and former host of Comedy Central's satirical "Daily Show" is making a comeback on a new network. Jon Stewart just signed a multi-year production deal with the giant cable HBO. He'll start by creating short form digital content.

CNN's senior media correspondent Brian Stelter has the details -- Brian.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John. Yes. This is a fascinating deal for Jon Stewart that says a lot about how media is changing. It's been three months since Jon Stewart signed off the "Daily Show," signed off Comedy Central. He's been living on his family farm out in New Jersey, growing out his beard, enjoying not being on TV every day. He says he doesn't miss "The Daily Show" one bit because it was such a demanding show.

And that's partly what makes this new deal different. So this is a four-year production deal with HBO, which like CNN is owned by the media company Time Warner. And through this deal, he'll be able to do a wide variety of things if he wants to. He can develop TV shows, he can develop movies, but it will start with Web videos or what HBO calls short form digital content.

So what does that mean? Well, it means that he'll be able to weigh in, he'll be able to comment on current events and whatever is going on in the world with two to five-minute long Web videos that he'll develop, that he'll write, that he might narrate, but might not actually appear on camera for.

[01:25:14] And so you can imagine a video that Jon Stewart makes about a debate where he writes it, he scripts it, he records the audio for it, but then animation actually appears in order to tell the story. He's actually working with a Cloud graphics company in order to create these kinds of Web videos. And they'll go online on HBO's apps. They might not ever appear on HBO's television channel but instead they'll appear in HBO's apps.

It's as if Stewart has conquered one medium, he conquered television. He had many years on the "Daily Show," and now he's off for his next act, trying out the Internet instead, seeing if he can, instead of doing a daily show, doing an hourly show. Tells stories in a shorter way whenever he feels like weighing in on current events.

I'm sure for his fans this is great news. They've missed him over the past few months as oppose to some of the politicians and some of the media figures that he skewered, well, they may not be so thrilled to hear that Stewart will be back soon.

HBO tells me this deal will start early next year, plenty of time, of course, for the 2016 election cycle.

John, back to you.

VAUSE: And Brian, thank you.

The widow of Robin Williams is talking publicly for the first time about why her husband took his own life. In an interview with ABC, Susan Williams said her husband suffered from an undiagnosed neurological disease called Lewy body dementia. It affects the brain's ability to transmit signals and its symptoms include confusion, memory loss and motor problems. She spoke about efforts to save her husband.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUSAN WILLIAMS, ROBIN WILLIAMS' WIDOW: I know we did everything we could. But, you know, Amy, people have -- in passing would come up and say, it's from their own grief, they would say to me, god, I wish I had done something more for him. If only I had called him. And I'm thinking, no one could have done anything more for Robin.

I just want everyone to know that. Nobody -- no one -- everyone did the very best they could. This disease is like a sea monster with 50 tentacles of symptoms that show when they want. It's chemical warfare on the brain and we can't find it until someone dies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Williams committed suicide August last year. His wife says drugs, alcohol, depression did not play a part in his death.

Well, still to come here on CNN, a record find for a Japanese company. A look at just how much Takata will have to pay for those faulty airbags. Details up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:31:22] VAUSE: Welcome, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. It's just gone 10:30 on a Tuesday night. I'm John Vause.

The headlines this hour, investigators in the Sinai Peninsula say they're wrapping up this field work in the crash of MetroJet 9268. They're focusing on the so-called black boxes to sort out conflicting evidence about what brought the airplane down.

Ohio has voted no on legalizing marijuana. Voters rejected a ballot measure that would have allowed a limited number of farms to grow the plant. The controversial initiative was backed by a host of investors involving a pop star and a football player.

Cable giant HBO announced it's reached a four-year deal with Jon Stewart, former host of "The Daily Show." The four-year deal will showcase Stewart's new projects on several of the network's digital platforms and includes the potential for films and TV ventures.

U.S. regulators have hit Japan's Takata Corporation with a massive fine for selling defective air bags and failing to acknowledge the problem. The auto parts maker was fined $70 million and could face an additional $130 million penalty if it fails to adhere to safety measures. Takata must stop selling air bag components similar to those that caused the malfunctions. The air bags were linked to seven deaths in the United States and one in Malaysia where the subject of a huge recall.

"CNN Money" correspondent, Sofia Yan, is in Hong Kong and joins us with more on the story.

Sofia, regulators were scathing at Takata and warn this is far from the end of their legal problems.

SOFIA YAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is just one of many fines that U.S. regulators have asked Takata to pay. Earlier in the year, Takata was slapped with a fine of $14,000 a day. So there's much more to come. More fines could come from the U.S. Justice Department and the company is embroiled in a number of smaller lawsuits. Some have been settled. But none of this is good news for the company.

VAUSE: Honda was Takata's largest client. They fired Takata. But the still produce air bags for other car manufacturers?

YAN: Honda did dump Takata today. The company said it, quote, "expects its supplier to act with integrity at all times and we are deeply troubled by this apparent behavior by one of our suppliers."

Now, the question that I want to raise here is that Takata, yes, they've made lots of auto parts through the years, but the big thing that consumers and automakers now face is whether or not they still feel safe using Takata's air bags. Eight deaths, this is no small number. Now, building that confidence will take some time.

VAUSE: Yeah. Clearly, this is a company which has a lot of trouble, a lot of problems still to come.

OK. Sofia Yan, in Hong Kong, thank you for being with us.

From air bags to Volkswagen, and the troubles with that automaker just got a whole lot worse. They're still reeling from the diesel emissions scandal. The German automaker says it set fuel consumption figures too low when certifying some models. Volkswagen says it regrets the error and will begin discussing ways to fix this issue with the relevant authorities.

Meantime, Japan Post holdings it having a pretty good day. Its stock surged as much as 19 percent in Wednesday's market debut. The initial public offering was part of a deal that saw the Japanese government spin off and sell the postal operators insurance and banking subsidiaries. Still part of a wider government push to privatize state economies, they're trying to grow the economy. The idea raised $12 billion for the Japanese government.

[01:35:13] In Indonesia, Bali International Airport and domestic airports are closed until Thursday because of the volcanic ash cloud from Mt. Rinjani. Tremors are being recorded continuously and more eruptions are expected. Thousands of travelers were stranded in Bali in July because of another volcano in east Java.

For the first time since China's civil war ended 56 years ago, the presidents of Taiwan and China will hold talks Saturday in Singapore.

Matt Rivers joins us now from Hong Kong with more details on this.

Matt, it is a historic day. It will be an historic meeting. It seems it has a lot to do with the upcoming election in Taiwan as much as it is about improving relations. MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, that's right. Timing is

everything and there's a lot of speculation about the timing of this particular meeting. Let's start with that national election you mentioned next January in Taiwan. The party that's currently in power in Taiwan is speculating that it sees a political opportunity here by setting up this meeting with President Xi. What they're hoping will happen is that that meeting will improve the party's chances of winning what is expected to be a tight, general election come next January if economic ties specifically can improve between Taiwan and between the mainland. And it would be the hope that in the short-term the economy in Taiwan would improve and, therefore, bolster the current ruling party's chances of running an election because when the economy is good, oftentimes the votes follow. As far as Beijing is concerned, it has a stake in which party controls this country. The opposition party in next year's elections has openly stated that it is far less to negotiating with Beijing with some of those party members openly advocating for Taiwan to become a separate, sovereign nation, independent of mainland China. Beijing, of course, has no interest in that happening and has threatened to use force to stop that from happening. So the hope is they wouldn't have to go that far.

VAUSE: And, Matt, you say this is all about in some ways Beijing hoping to improve the economy in Taiwan, keeping the friendly allies in power on the island. But there's the potential for blow back, as well, because many in Taiwan don't want China, the mainland, at least, Beijing to be meddling in politics there.

RIVERS: That's right. There is real suspicion among many Taiwanese people that they don't want to become another version of Hong Kong, which is basically ruled by China. They certainly do not want that. There were large protests. Just last year, a students group effectively took over the legislature in Taipei for about a month, basically, protesting what they called an unfair trade deal that was being negotiated between Beijing and Taipei. There's also the poll numbers that you can look at. The opposition party in next year's election so far doing very, very well with many political experts coming close to saying they could win next year's elections, ousting the current party leadership. So there is certainly evidence of many, many Taiwanese people not being very much in favor of closer ties with Beijing. So whether this move works out politically for the current party in power in Taiwan is kind of a gamble.

VAUSE: Yeah. Trying to set up so the nationals can remain in power some way, but they are way behind.

Matt, thank you. Matt Rivers, long in Hong Kong.

Justin Trudeau will be worn in as the Canadian 23rd prime minister in a few hours. The 43-year-old father of three and his Liberal Party won a parliamentary majority in elections two weeks ago, ousting Stephen Harper's conservatives. Members of Mr. Trudeau's cabinet will also be sworn in.

Next hereon NEWSROOM L.A., flash flooding and mudslides in Yemen after a rare tropical storm battered the country with a year's worth of rain. Details after the break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:42:38] VAUSE: Parts of Yemen have been deluged after parts of a rare tropical cyclone hit on Tuesday. Chapala caused mudslides and flash flooding have been a major threat. And the amateur video here reportedly showing people trying to rescue someone who was stuck in a car. Heavy fog is plaguing parts of the United States as well as Europe.

Meterologist Allison Chinchar joins us.

We've got soupy conditions for, what, a few million people right now?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Indeed. It's going to be quite a lot of people. This is Atlanta. Again, normally, you would be able to see the heights of those tall sky scrapers that we have. But the fog essentially cuts it off right through there. Not only is Atlanta affected, but we have a lot of cities that are dealing with the fog. This was actually tuesday morning. One thing to note is there's two different colors here. There's a bright white color, especially across southern Florida and Georgia. Those are clouds. But the lighter color, more of a grayish tone, that is actually fog that set in. So you can see quite a huge swath of area that had to deal with fog in the morning and it really sat in some spots even through the early afternoon. Wednesday and thursday, not going to be much different except this time it spreads out a little more. Not only will it be cities like Atlanta, but nashville, St. Louis, almost zero visibility. Chicago will be in the mix. Then as we transition into thursday, it comes back again. But now a few new cities. Now we're talking about Washington, D.C., raleigh, even New York City will be dealing with it. Sunday and monday, London had an enormous amount of delays and cancellations due to the fog. We're going to be dealing with a similar scenario. But this grayish area that you can see stretching back to parts of Russia, that would be the fog. They're going to go through similar scenarios on both wednesday and thursday. We're talking about copenhagen, almost down to zero kilometers visibility. We're even talking belfast, amsterdam, a lot of these cities will be looking at incredibly low visibilities out there.

One of the reasons we're seeing it is because of all the weather conditions. Take a look, what you can see is typically what we get is we have the grassy areas, when it rains, it becomes a saturated surface. At night, the skies clear out and those warm temperatures that are sitting there eventually begin to evaporate up. And that helps create some of that fog that just kind of sits down at the surface. Now, one other thing to note, too, is going to be this different pattern that we're kind of stuck in. And, again, we've got the warm, moist area that is sitting over much of the eastern half of the country. We've got that gulf moisture coming in, in addition to the areas that it's already rained. We've got the rain, but much cooler weather out along the West coast. We were talking about this earlier, that weather has been fantastic. It's dumped a lot of snow in parts of the sierra Nevada, just in time for a lot of ski resorts to open up.

[01:45:47] VAUSE: There is a lot of snow, which is good news, but they're preparing for a wet and wild winter, as well.

Allison, thank you.

And that wet and wild winter is all because of an El Nino weather pattern. It could be a Godzilla El Nino. Crews have been scrambling to clean up some areas that have been hit hard by recent storms.

And we get the details on all of this from Paul Vercammen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: L.A. County public works crews making sure that every single storm drain is completely clear. They got an ominous look at what El Nino could do when a storm whipped through here just about two weeks ago.

(on camera): A thunderstorm pounded northern Los Angeles County. Cars became trapped when mud gushed down hillsides. L.A. County called in the heavier equipment to clear roads and bridges.

In a way, they're even fighting water with water to clear huge areas of storm drains.

GAIL FARBER, LOS ANGELES PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR: Deal in risk every single day. Our charge this year is to increase that awareness.

VERCAMMEN: The public works director, like her counterparts, is touring danger zones, bracing for El Nino.

FARBER: We know these natural disasters and extreme events are going to happen. We all can prepare and take care of each other so we can minimize losses.

VERCAMMEN: Here is the latest National Weather Service El Nino warning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: October sea surface temperature anomaly continues to reflect warming across the tropical, central and eastern Pacific ocean.

VERCAMMEN: Based on water now 2.4 degrees celsius, the measure of this El Nino is just behind the devastating 1997, 1998 El Nino event. That season, 30 inches of rain, twice the normal average, cascaded on to Los Angeles.

So now county works crews are digging out ahead of El Nino, clearing 82 catch basins and miles of storm drains.

A road supervisor warns, when the rain comes, stay away from slide zones, especially places stripped of vegetation by recent fires.

UNIDENTIFIED ROAD SUPERVISOR: Try and avoid areas where there might have been a cliff or a mountain side that you could get stuck in a mudslide. Like during this storm we had heavy hail and people were unaware and they just, you know, got caught up in heavy mudslides. VERCAMMEN (on camera): The National Weather Service says El Ninos

usually peak from january to March. But don't be surprised if some super heavy stuff starts to come down in december.

Paul Vercammen, CNN, Lake Hughes, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Still to come here, think before you ink. A New York mets fan forgot that very simple advice before the world series. Ah, what a shame.

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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[01:51:05] CHINCHAR: I'm Meterologist Allison Chinchar, and you are watching CNN "Weather Watch."

(WEATHER REPORT)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: An E. coli outbreak at Chipotle in Washington has led to dozens of store closures and a federal lawsuit. At least 37 people say they became sick after eating at Chipotle prompting the chain to close all 43 stores in the area. Only eight stores are under investigation. One woman who became ill has filed a federal lawsuit seeking damages of at least $75,000. Chipotle is working with federal investigator to try and find out what caused the outbreak.

Online book seller amazon is taking a step back in time. It's opened an actual bookstore in seattle, Washington. For years, amazon's Internet business played a role in the demise of many of its bricks- and-mortar competitors. Amazon says its store integrates a bit of its off-line and online book shopping.

Have you been on Twitter today? You may have noticed a few changes there. It now has swapped out its star icon for a heart. It's renamed its favorite action as a like. The company says it's all part of the plan to make the site easier to those new to Twitter. There were lots of people confused by the changes and kind of mad. They want Twitter to reverse the decision.

A New York mets fan was so confident his team would win the world series, he had it tattooed to his body. They didn't win.

Here is jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When college student, Josh davis, got his world champs New York mets 2015 tattoo --

JOSH DAVIS, NEW YORK METS FAN: It was hurting a lot. My ribs, that was really bad. That was the worst tattoo pain i've ever experienced. MOOS: -- but not as bad as the pain he experienced with his beloved

mets lost the world series that his tattoo proclaimed they had won.

Josh actually got the tattoo during game one.

(on camera): You weren't inking while drinking, were you?

DAVIS: Oh, no, not at all. I was completely sober, sober and faithful.

MOOS (voice-over): Don't feel bad, Josh, you're not the first to suffer from PST, premature sports tattooing.

Neither the Cowboys or the Lions lived up to premature tattoos. And when the Seattle Seahawks failed to become back to back champions, this guy joked about sanding off his tattoo.

But our Mets fan had no regrets.

DAVID: No, not at all. To me, it's always going to remind me of this year. They really did have a great year.

[01:55:04] MOOS: Josh now joins those adorned with erroneous ink. "Belive" for "believe." "Strength" without the "G." And this stab in the back, "Why not? Everyone else does," but "else" has an extra "E."

And how about all the bad grammar? "Never don't give up."

Talk about rejects. There are entire websites devoted to tattoo failure.

Johnny Depp updated his tattoo while dating Wynonna Rider, he got one saying "Wynonna forever." When they broke up, he changed it to "Wyno forever."

Josh turned may turn his into a Mets tribute, but, for now, he's enjoying the attention.

DAVIS: I pull up my shirt and people's eyes widen up, like, oh, my god, that's you?

MOOS: Think before you ink, they say, or you may have to eat your words.

Ouch.

(on camera): Can we take on more look at it?

(voice-over): Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Ah, Josh. Oh, well.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.

Please stay with us. The news continues with Rosemary Church after a short break.

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