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Chinese Financial Markets Halt Trading; North Korea Hydrogen Bomb Test; Global Outrage Over Hydrogen Bomb Claim; Testing the "Good Guy with Gun" Theory; President Obama's Gun Control Plan; Trump Presses Cruz on Canadian Birth; One Year Since Paris "Charlie Hebdo" Attacks. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired January 07, 2016 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:17] JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour, international outrage combined with skepticism, after North Korea claims its first test of a hydrogen bomb. Donald Trump sets up his birther attacks on rival Ted Cruz. And the U.S. president gets set to sell his executive action on guns to the American public during a live town hall. Only here on CNN.
Hello, and welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. Thanks for being with us. I'm John Vause. Another hour of NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.
We'll get to those stories in just a moment. But we begin with more troubling news in the global financial markets. The trading day in China ended almost as quickly as it began after a record sell-off triggered circuit breakers. The Shanghai Composite and the CSI 300 both fell more than 7 percent. And the tech heavy Shenzhen market was off more than 8 percent.
It's been a rough day so far across the Asia-Pacific region. Stocks are down right now across the board. Let's take a look at the numbers. Hong Kong, down by more than 2.5 percent. The Australian ASX 200 down by almost 2.25 percent. And also there, the Seoul Kospi, down by almost 2 percent, as well.
We go to the Dow. This was a bad day on the Dow, down by 1.5 percent there. Falling by more than 250 points on Wednesday.
Let's get more what's behind the plunge. CNN's Matt Rivers, live again this hour in Beijing. So about four hours ago now, they've stopped trading on the markets in the mainland China. Walk us through how we got to this point.
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Very, very rough start to 2016, John, for Chinese stock markets. As you mentioned, this was an incredibly quick sell-off this morning. The market wasn't even open for half an hour before it was automatically closed. I think most of the investors and the analysts that we've spoken to this morning are pointing to an overnight loss of value for the Chinese currency, the Yuan, as the main reason for today's sell-off. It dropped to its lowest value since 2011. And that seemed to really spook investors. And then the other interesting point to all this that we've spoken to
some observers here, about those circuit breakers that you mentioned. When the stock market -- when the CSI 300 index drops to 5 percent, trading is automatically halted for 15 minutes. That's supposed to give investors a chance to calm down. But what observers are saying here is that what that's actually doing is giving investors a chance to line up their orders to sell.
And so as soon as the market reopens, all of those orders to sell stocks go through. And I think that could be what has happened today, according to many people that we spoke to. As soon as the markets reopened it plummeted to that 7 percent mark almost immediately. And then markets were closed for the day.
VAUSE: Matt, I guess a lot of people would be curious if the turmoil on, you know, the Korean Peninsula, just next door to China, is actually having any impact on this market volatility.
RIVERS: Well, it certainly could. I don't think any investor in the world would tell you that uncertainty is a good thing in a geopolitical sense in terms of stock markets. I think the North Korea situation certainly playing a role here. I think you could also look to the diplomatic tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. You could also look at oil prices being the lowest they've been in 12 years. You could look at the World Bank cutting global growth forecasts for third year in a row.
So all of that certainly plays a part. But I think also what you're seeing is just the results of a slowing Chinese economy. Over the past six months regulators here have really been trying to get on top of this volatility. They've injected tens of billions of U.S. dollars of liquidity into the markets to try and calm things down. Just today they announced new regulations in terms of being able to limit major shareholders from being able to sell of large stakes in listed companies.
But all of that at the moment does not seem to really be working in terms of curbing this volatility. And investors and analysts alike are really questioning the Chinese government's ability to make in China and the stock markets here a safe place to invest.
VAUSE: What goes up, comes down. No risk, no reward. I guess they're learning that right now.
Matt, thank you. Matt Rivers, live this hour in Beijing.
U.S. lawmakers are discussing the possibility of additional sanctions on North Korea. This comes as the U.S. reaffirms its defense commitments to its allies including South Korea.
Paula Hancocks live again in Seoul with more on this.
So, Paula, some high-level phone calls in the past few hours between leaders in Seoul, Tokyo and Washington. Do we know much about the specifics of their conversation?
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Not really specifics, John. We had a readout from these phone calls.
[01:05:01] And we understand that all three -- or that the two, Obama and the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, then Obama and the South Korean president, Park Geun-hye, they agreed that this was a clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, of previous agreements and commitments that North Korea had made. Nothing surprising there.
And they also agreed that something had to be done and that there would be a commitment to -- from the United States to its allies. So really a very standard redact. And something we would have expected. Obviously, the U.N. is what we're looking to now. There was an assumption that there would be talk about sanctions. There was talk about sanctions. But what kind of sanctions? What kind of additional sanctions could work when you see that North Korea is managing to move forward with this nuclear program, despite being one of the most heavily sanctioned countries on earth. So it was an interesting fact that they did talk. But if there was more interesting within that phone call, it wasn't given out to the press.
VAUSE: And, Paula, you mentioned that already North Korea is facing or is already sanctioned more than any other country in the world and the U.S. Congress is now looking at even more sanctions. How will North Korea react if the U.S. Congress approves that measure?
HANCOCKS: It will react angrily, as it has done many times in the past. And there could even be another provocation, that could possibly be another missile test or rocket launch. We are hearing from some analysts because they can say that they are reacting to hostility from the international community.
Now just carrying out this -- this nuclear test, North Korea has said that they are reacting to the hostile United States. They are saying they are doing this as self-defense. So certainly going forward, they could justify at least to themselves and domestically why they carry out another provocation.
Remember, this is a very important year. In May, we will have the Seventh Workers Party Congress. This doesn't happen very often. It's a very big deal in North Korea. And Kim Jong-Un, the new leader, would certainly like to arrive there with what he calls a successful hydrogen bomb test under his belt and potentially more rocket launches or something else which the rest of the world will see as a provocation -- John.
VAUSE: And finally, Paula, one thing we've always found interesting is the reaction by South Koreans to these North Korean nuclear tests. What are you picking up from, excuse me, just people in the street?
HANCOCKS: You wouldn't even know there had been a nuclear test if you walked out onto the streets of Seoul. Nothing has changed. Everyone is going about their business. And it's not surprising. South Koreans have been dealing with North Korea for the past 70 years. They are still, technically, at war with their northern neighbors. There was never a peace treaty -- sorry, 60 years. There was never a peace treaty signed in 1953 up to that Korean war. It's just an armistice. So they're used to this. And you won't see much reaction. The
reaction is coming from the political arena. And the politicians, the officials, the intelligence agencies. The average person on the street, whether or not they're taking interest, you would assume they're taking interest, but they're not showing any outward concern, that's for sure -- John.
VAUSE: Paula, thank you. Paula Hancocks, live this hour with what sounds like a pretty bad cold there. Paula, I hope it gets better. Thank you.
No matter what North Korean detonated on Wednesday there will be diplomatic fallout for North Korea. Here's our global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): North Korea's claim it tested a hydrogen bomb brought swift condemnation from around the world.
BAN KI-MOON, UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY GENERAL: This act is a profoundly destabilizing for regional security.
SHINZO ABE, JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER (Through Translator): North Korea's nuclear test is a serious threat to our nation's security and absolutely cannot be tolerated.
LABOTT: Even China, North Korea's neighbor and closest ally quickly denounced the test. After downplaying the nuclear threat for years, growing concern in Beijing over the program under North Korea's erratic and unpredictable leader.
U.S. officials hope North Korea's largest benefactor will finally put the squeeze on Kim Jong-Un and wants the U.N. Security Council to impose tough new sanctions.
JOHN KIRBY, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: What we do want to see is a strong international response to this latest provocation and unanimity in the international community about raising the stakes further on the regime.
LABOTT: But decades of sanctions have failed to curb the nuclear ambitions of three generations of North Korean leaders. President Clinton's 1994 agreed framework backfired and gave the North diplomatic cover to build a nuclear weapon. President Bush came close to a deal where Pyongyang would trade its nukes for aid and a peace treaty, but it didn't happen.
President Obama came to office promising not to overreact to North Korea's nuclear antics, continuing sanctions until Pyongyang agreed to negotiate an end to its program.
[01:10:12] Instead, the U.S. focused on a nuclear deal with Iran, a more willing partner. In April, Iran agreed to robust curves on its program. Meanwhile, three of North Korea's four nuclear tests have been launched since Obama took office.
Critics label Obama's so-called strategic patience a recipe for diplomatic failure.
BILL RICHARDSON, FORMER AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N.: Some no diplomatic policy options need to be put on the table. In my view is that, a deal like Iran, similar like we had before in the Bush administration in exchange for food, fuel, lifting of some sanctions, they curb their nuclear weapons.
LABOTT (on camera): But U.S. officials say the North Korean regime has shown no willingness it is ready to talk. And so it's unclear what it would take to bring them to the table. For the starters, the North has demanded to be officially recognized as a nuclear state, but the White House and State Department reaffirmed after this latest test they do not and will not accept North Korea as a nuclear power.
Elise Labott, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: If the North Koreans tested a hydrogen bomb, or if it was made from plutonium, that is a lot in terms of Pyongyang's military and nuclear capability. But perhaps it's not as important terms of diplomacy and what happens next.
Well, for more that David Kang is with me now. He's the director of Korean Studies at the University of Southern California.
David, thank you for coming in. If we take the taking of sides out of the equation here, is this nuclear test sort of a status quo event that diplomatically at least not a lot is going to change?
DAVID KANG, DIRECTOR, USC KOREAN STUDIES INSTITUTE: Yes. In many ways, this is a game we've played before where North Korea tests, international condemnation, calls for more sanctions. China says, everyone, stay calm. But we don't really a whole lot of leverage to do anything more than that with North Korea. And so we've done this before and we'll probably do it again.
VAUSE: These North Korean tests, as you said, they're planned on a very familiar fashion, you know one big difference in what happened 24 hours ago is that Beijing wasn't given a heads-up. There was no notification coming from Pyongyang. That says a lot to me about Kim Jong-Un, the leader, especially compared to his father, Kim Jong-Il, who at the very least tried to keep the Chinese on side.
KANG: Yes.
VAUSE: So what's going on here?
KANG: Well, China has clearly been more annoyed with Kim Jong-Un ever since he took power. So while Xi Jinping has invited South Korea and invited the South Korean leader, they have basically frozen out North Korea. And North Korea has returned the favor. Clearly now Kim Jong- Un is not trying to keep China actually on board either. VAUSE: OK. So given that, is it possible then in the bigger picture
and as we move further down the road, move further away from the actual event, that this nuclear test could backfire in some way on Kim Jong-Un. If you look at what's happening right now, the Japanese and the South Koreans are moving closer together, everyone is -- the Japanese and the South Koreans also moving closer to the United States, and also possibly pushing the Chinese even further away?
KANG: It could backfire. I mean, everyone wonders what China is going to do. There's even talk of the United States trying to put some indirect sanctions on China to get them to put sanctions on North Korea. We'll see. But essentially again we don't have a whole lot that we can do to punish North Korea.
VAUSE: The North Koreans have this history of exaggerating their success in these nuclear tests. The U.S. and the others have a history of calling them out on it. So why would it be the North Koreans know that. So why would they say or people would say yet again they have done something which they may not have done?
KANG: Yes. I think this test is mostly for domestic politics in North Korea. Kim Jong-Un is facing a Workers Party meeting that hasn't met since 1980 that's going to happen later this spring. He's claimed to have economic growth and military power. But the economic growth is not doing that well. So what he's got to show is I'm keeping North Korea strong. And this is one of the tests -- even if it failed, he can tell his people, I'm moving forward in keeping North Korea strong.
VAUSE: And even if he's failed, he'd tell them that it worked because no one in North Korea is going to notice.
KANG: Yes.
VAUSE: Right?
KANG: And they're not going to be too interested in actually figuring out whether it happened or not. And one reason countries like to test is, they learn stuff by it. So he's moving them forward, the big takeaway is, North Korea continues to improve its nuclear weapons capability.
VAUSE: David, thanks for coming in. Good to speak with you.
KANG: My pleasure.
VAUSE: Well, the U.S. gun control debate is heating up once again. Next I'm joined by the founder of the Gun Rights Organization which called President Barack Obama's actions a vendetta against the Second Amendment.
Also heavy rains are triggering mudslides in vulnerable parts in California. How long is it expected to last? That's also ahead.
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[01:18:47] VAUSE: Well, turning now to the gun control debate in the United States. The country's largest gun rights organization says it will not be part of CNN's live town hall on Thursday with President Barack Obama, saying in part, "The National Rifle Association sees no reason to participate in a public relations spectacle orchestrated by the White House."
A CNN spokesperson says it was actually the network which proposed the idea and that an equal amount of supporters and opponents of gun regulation will be in attendance.
There's been a lot of backlash since Mr. Obama announced his plans for gun control. When it comes to active shooter situations, some gun rights advocates say more armed people could in fact save lives. This is what the Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, it's interesting. In California, when you had the two people, these two horrible people, shoot people that gave them a wedding party -- these people that got killed gave them a wedding party. Anyway, they went in, they shot -- if a couple of people in that room had guns, or if a couple of people in Paris had guns, you wouldn't have 130 people or 14 people in California laying dead with more to follow because you have so many people so badly wounded.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And Miguel Marquez took part in a simulation of an active shooter situation to test the good guy with a gun theory.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[01:20:09] MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That's an AR-15, like the gun used in San Bernardino, the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater massacre and Sandy Hook elementary to name a few.
That's a 9mm, a popular handgun used in San Bernardino and many other shootings.
The Advance Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training at Texas State University trains law enforcement agencies nationwide in handling active shooter incidents. ALERRT runs the largest training program in the country. It is the go-to organization for law enforcement agencies nationwide in preparing for mass casualty and specialized emergencies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's body armor. That's the standard body armor that patrol officers wear.
MARQUEZ: They run a scenario, the guns firing rounds made of soap. I was the good guy, legally carrying a concealed weapon when a shooting breaks out.
I hear shooting down a long dimly lit hallway, I take a peak then shoot my own producer Brian Vitagliano, hitting him once in the chest. As I moved down the hallway, another student pops out, I don't shoot him and I'm able to stop the gunmen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We hear the shots, we know the problem is down here so we start, I kind of push you, let's go, let's go, because again, if we're coming to try stop the active shooter we got to get to the active shooter.
MARQUEZ: From 2000 to 2013 there were 160 active shooter incidents in 40 of the 50 states both rural and urban areas. In the first seven years of the study, there were about six incidents each year then the frequency increased sharply, more than doubling to roughly 16 incidents every year.
Pete Blair who runs ALERRT authored that report. He says active shooter situations are so chaotic and only a tiny number of incidents did someone with a gun stopped a shooter.
PETE BLAIR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALERRT: Now out of all the events we looked at, there are about 3 percent of the events where it was somebody with a firearm who stopped the shooter.
MARQUEZ: In 2014 a Darby, Pennsylvania, doctor shot and killed a gunman who had killed one person. And in 2008, a man with a concealed weapon stopped the gunman in Winnemucca, Nevada, after the gunman had killed two people and injured two others.
BLAIR: I'm not anti-gun at all. I have a concealed handgun license myself.
MARQUEZ (on camera): But in an active shooter situation, you would not want just anyone pulling out a gun and trying to save the day?
BLAIR: Yes, or what we say is, there's a lot that goes into it, and so there's -- looking at the situation and saying, what's happening right now.
MARQUEZ (voice-over): ALERRT emphasizes a good guy with a gun could kill innocent people. They could be shot by police or other civilians mistaking them for the attacker. Or --
BLAIR: All right, pause for signal. What we have is a malfunction.
MARQUEZ: Three times the 9mm jammed while I was firing it and that was just practice.
BLAIR: You literally have to strip the magazine out, work it like this, reinsert the magazine, and then you can shoot again.
MARQUEZ: Without hundreds or thousands of hours of training, a rookie mistake like a jammed weapon, just a few seconds to clear it could mean the good guy with a gun becomes another victim.
Miguel Marquez, CNN, San Marcos, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Alan Gottlieb is the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation. He joins me now from Seattle.
Mr. Gottlieb, thank you for being with us.
(CROSSTALK)
ALAN GOTTLIEB, FOUNDER, SECOND AMENDMENT FOUNDATION: My pleasure.
VAUSE: I would like to read a statement for you from the -- from president yesterday, about what he is not planning to do.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Contrary to the claims of what some gun rights proponents have suggested, this hasn't been the first step in some slippery slope to mass confiscation. This is not a plot to take away everybody's guns.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Do you believe the president? Is he telling the truth?
GOTTLIEB: No, I don't believe the president because quite frankly when he was a state senator in Illinois, he authored and sponsored a bill in the state legislature to ban handguns and confiscate them from people in the state of Illinois. And once a U.S. senator, he supported banning semiautomatic sport utility rifles when he was a senator.
So what he's proposing today isn't exactly a ban. But if he could do it, he would. He knows he doesn't have the executive authority legally to do so.
VAUSE: The history of this president, though, as president, is to actually expand gun rights, allowing weapons onto Amtrak, the national rail system, allowing weapons into national parks. This is a president who has not really moved in any way to constrict the rights of gun owners.
GOTTLIEB: In those instances it wasn't his idea. He didn't have a choice.
[01:25:00] Those pieces of legislation were tacked to other bills that he had it passed, he had other things that he wanted. And so he had -- he was forced basically to allow that to happen. It wasn't his idea. He didn't propose it. And if he could have stopped it, he would have.
VAUSE: OK, so let's -- to recap, the suspicion that Mr. Obama would like to take away the Second Amendment rights stems from his time as a senator and as a state senator. GOTTLIEB: Well, also as president, you know, we have cities in the
United States that had bans on ownership of firearms in your own home like Washington, D.C. and Chicago. His Justice Department would not sue those cities so that they overturn those laws to protect individual rights and the constitutional rights of Americans here. And we had to do that and the Second Amendment Foundation has to file suits to be able to overturn those laws because his Justice Department wouldn't defend the rights of gun owners.
VAUSE: OK. Let's move on to his proposals to expand background checks. Why should it matter where or how you buy a gun? You're still buying a gun. Isn't the gun the important part here? Not how you bought it? Not the retailer?
GOTTLIEB: Well, this is really about background checks. And the truth of the matter is all the examples he used to basically say why he's doing all this, the mass shootings and the terror attack we had, the Associated Press fact-checker today did a story that none of his proposals that he's proposing would have stopped any of those from happening whatsoever. So he's not intellectually honest about any of this.
What he's trying to do is make it harder and more difficult for a lawful citizen to be able to exercise their rights and purchase firearms. That's what he's intending to do. But the truth of the matter is, thanks to Obama we have more background checks in America than we've ever had before because we're selling more guns than we did before because people don't trust him. He's lost the trust of Americans. People are going out -- every time he wants to push another gun control measure, they went out and buy more and more guns. So there are more and more background checks because there are more guns sold.
VAUSE: Well, if I can pick up on a couple of points there. Mr. Obama did say that the background checks were, in fact, to use the example of Connecticut, which over the past 10 years has introduced more background checks, more permits to buy guns, the murder rate over a period of 10 years has gone down by 44 percent. And that's a reality.
Also yes, more guns are being sold. But they're being bought by the same number of people. More guns, fewer gun owners.
GOTTLIEB: That's not really true. We actually have more gun owners particularly women, single women in this country are becoming the single biggest buyers of handguns in the United States. When we cite the statistics in Connecticut that crime went down, that's true. But didn't go down as much as it did in the rest of the United States.
We have gun violence epidemic. But the truth of the matter is over the last decade, gun violence in America has gone down more than it has in the state of Connecticut or places that have strict gun control laws.
VAUSE: Well, in another state, Missouri, also cited by the president, where they actually relaxed and got rid of the background checks, murder rate went up over a 10-year period by something like 17 percent.
GOTTLIEB: In that particular state, it did. But he's picking apples and oranges when he's doing that. He's not looking at the things all the way across the board. The biggest problem we have right now is this president has -- his Justice Department has prosecuted fewer gun crimes than any president in modern American history. Despite the fact that we have all these laws in place if you go to a gun store and try to buy a gun and you lie on the form and commit a felony, this administration doesn't prosecute you.
Those people are still out on the streets being able to try and obtain firearms other ways, committing other crimes. You really want to solve the problem about crime and violence in the country, go and punish the people who abuse the system.
VAUSE: I think most people would agree with you on that point, punish the people that abuse the system, absolutely. But tell me this, why would Congress hold up this issue of background checks when it's something which has overwhelming support, an opinion poll back in October, CBS-"New York Times" had 92 percent of Americans, 87 percent Republicans, in that poll, favor background checks for all gun buyers. So why not just move ahead with this one simple act with such overwhelming support?
GOTTLIEB: Because unfortunately the piece of legislation wasn't just about background checks. If it was background checks, it would be another thing. The devil is in the details. The system put in place a national registration system that would have registered all gun owners in the United States and give the federal government access to that database.
We as gun owners don't want to be in a government data base. That's what the problem is. If you do this right, you'd open up the system and allow any citizen to go to the national check system and call in and find out if a person is qualified to own a firearm or not, without having go through a license dealer and paying a fee, exercise your rights, it would probably pass. That's not what they want. They want to have a database of all gun owners.
VAUSE: Well --
GOTTLIEB: So as long as they're going to push it gun control, rather than background check, Congress is not going to pass it.
VAUSE: Well, I think the database is not on the agenda even though, again, an overwhelming number of Americans and a majority of Republican voters support the issue of a national database.
But, Mr. Gottlieb, I appreciate your time and you viewpoints. Thank you for being with us, sir.
GOTTLIEB: My pleasure.
[01:30:00] VAUSE: Anderson Cooper will host a live town hall event. You can see "Guns In America." 8:00 p.m. in Washington, 1:00 in London, right here on CNN. Still to come, Donald Trump, pressing the question. His suggestion on
what Ted Cruz should do next.
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VAUSE: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. 10:30 on a Wednesday night. I'm John Vause.
The headlines this hour --
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VAUSE: Donald Trump says Ted Cruz could go to court and get a ruling on whether or not he's a natural-born citizen. It's the latest shot at Senator Cruz, as Cruz's numbers rise.
Sara Murray has details of Trump's changing position on this issue.
[01:35:17] SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump taking aim at Ted Cruz's citizenship.
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: People are worried that if he wasn't born in this country. He wasn't. He was born in Canada. He had a Canadian passport with a U.S. Passport, within the last couple of years. The problem is, if the Democrats bring a lawsuit, the lawsuit could take years to resolve.
MURRAY: Questioning whether Canadian roots disqualify him for the presidency.
TRUMP: I hope that's not going to be a problem for him. I've been hearing a lot about it. It is a concern for the party. I hope that's not the case. I'm not involved in that. But a lot of people are bringing it up.
MURRAY: Cruz responded, Tuesday, with this clip on Twitter showing Fonzie on "Happy Days" jumping the shark, a scene that gave rise to the pop culture expression, for when something has turned absurd to grab attention.
SEN. TED CRUZ, (R), TEXAS & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (voice-over): From my end, I'm not interested in getting into the circus sideshow of politics. These are serious times with serious challenges.
MURRAY: Cruz, whose father was Cuban and mother was born in the United States, moved from Canada to Texas at age 4. He had dual citizenship in the U.S. and Canada but renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2014 and posted the letter online.
CRUZ: As a legal matter, the question is straightforward in settled law, that the child of a U.S. citizen born abroad is a natural born citizen.
MURRAY: Most legal scholars agree. Today, Trump is claiming it's others who are raising the issue. But it's the billionaire businessman who has a history of birtherism. TRUMP: Barack Obama should give his birth certificate.
MURRAY: And he's flip-flopped on Cruz. In 2014, predicting the citizenship question would be an insurmountable barrier for the Senator.
TRUMP: If you're not born in this country, you can't be president.
MURRAY: But saying this a few months ago.
TRUMP: I hear it was checked out by in every attorney every which way, and I understand that Ted is in fine shape.
MURRAY: Declaring it a nonissue, as he and Cruz were in something of a bromance on the campaign trail. That friendly embrace, coming to an end, as the Iowa caucuses loom and Cruz is on the rise.
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VAUSE: The White House is finding a little humor in a Republican being questioned about his birthplace. Press Secretary Josh Earnest weighed in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH EARNEST, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It would be ironic, if after several years of drama around the president's birth certificate, if Republican primary voters were to choose Senator Cruz at their nominee, a guy that was not born in the United States and only 18 months renounced his Canadian citizenship.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So-called birthers insist that President Obama was born in Kenya and therefore ineligible to be president. Obama released his birth certificate showing he was born in Hawaii.
The El Nino system of warm water in the Pacific is driving a series of storms that have battered California with heavy rain. And here in Los Angeles, drivers are creeping through sullen roads. California can use the rain. But there are concerns that repeated storms might flood the region.
Let's go for more on this to Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri.
So, rain, rain. But maybe a little too much.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: A little too much. Yeah. Especially after coming off the historic drought, John. This is a change of events when it comes to the amount of rainfall. The intensity of the rainfall. And El Nino pattern with the storm track diving further south, we're getting the beneficial rainfall. The flooding and the mudslide threat increases over this region. You look at the currents in the atmosphere, the jet stream this, is a hallmark pattern. From southern California to Mexico, where you get the heaviest rainfall, of course. You have to keep in mind. We had over 9,000 individual fires across the state of California in 2015. About one million acres of land were consumed. The forest litter that is across the land here, be leaves or foliage or you're talking about, perhaps, a Bushel or brush or trees. When this is consumed on a large scale, not only are you creating heat. It comes down to be more of a silt or a sand-like surface layer there. We know rainfall in the last couple of days, the threat, of course, all of this is absorbed at the surface. The heat creates a lid. You are bringing all of the water down. But it has nowhere to go once it gets below the surface. Now, you're displacing rocks and ash and sand. And landslides become a concern across this portion of California. And with the rainfall continuing to come down, it's something we're watching carefully. Some severe weather in the past 24 hours. Several tornadoes around San Diego County. First tornadoes there since 2006.
[01:40:28] VAUSE: Yeah. In the middle of winter, too.
JAVAHERI: Absolutely.
VAUSE: Pedram, thank you.
Still to come here on CNN NEWSROOM, "Charlie Hebdo" marks a painful anniversary, one year after a deadly terror attack.
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VAUSE: One year ago, two gunmen stormed the Paris offices of "Charlie Hebdo." 12 people were killed and five more died in related attacks in the following days.
CNN's senior international correspondent, Jim Bittermann, joins me from Paris.
Jim, this will be a difficult and painful anniversary for so many people there in France.
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is, John. Some of the commemorations began a few days ago and they're going to continue until Sunday. It's quite a week of commemorations and remembrances that are going on. This attack on "Charlie Hebdo" one year ago today, in fact, marked the beginning of a year in which the headlines were dominated by terrorism and terrorism events.
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[01:45:00] BITTERMANN (voice-over): It was, for France, a terrifying end to innocence. In the shots and shouts and the bloody scenes had long been predicted, no one, the police, or the officials, or the public, could have anticipated the homegrown terrorists striking at the heart of the French capital. It was an attack, not only on the cartoonists, editors and others who were killed, it was an attack on the fundamental right of freedom of expression, that "Charlie Hebdo" had exercised to the fullest.
A year later, the commemorative plaques have gone up. Freedom of expression lives on.
(on camera): The newspaper -- the newspaper lives on, as well, albeit from a much more secure and secret location.
In fact, financially, "Charlie Hebdo" has never been stronger. Before the attacks, it struggled to survive. But since, there's been a six- fold increase in circulation and influx of millions of Euros in donations.
(voice-over): The editor said he would not rule out publishing more caricatures of Mohammed. But he sees no need to do so at the moment. He admits the tone of the newspaper has changed.
UNIDENTIFIED EDITOR (through translation): Here we are, one year later, with a vision which might be even a little more pessimistic today than a year ago.
BITTERMANN (on camera): Is it more difficult to be funny now?
UNIDENTIFIED EDITOR (through translation): No. We always manage to find the urge to laugh because we have the will to live.
BITTERMANN (voice-over): In that respect, the newspaper is a reflection of the nation, who which has been struggling to maintain its way of life. But the kind of attacks that killed and injured hundreds on November 13th, were entirely different.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think France has changed. I think the events of January last year were an enormous symbolic shock beyond the actual physical violence of the events. I think it's raised a lot of questions about French identity, perhaps, some of the causes of the attack.
BITTERMANN: Shortly after the newspaper was attacked, one observer said they thought they were going to kill "Charlie Hebdo." But they've made it stronger. A year later, the words ring just as true, not only for the newspaper, but perhaps even for France itself.
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BITTERMANN: Just a few hours from now, and in fact, the president will go and visit the central police station here in Paris and talk to the people who have been involved in the stepped-up security since the "Charlie Hebdo" attacks. And the big memorial is going to be on Sunday, where there will be 1,000 people, invitation-only event. There will be people who are family of victims and some of the people who were injured in the attacks will be there. They will plant a 30- foot-tall oak tree, commemorating all of the attacks and the other attacks -- John?
VAUSE: Jim Bittermann, live in Paris. Thank you, Jim.
We'll be right back.
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UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: The dark side, the Jedi.
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[01:52:08] VAUSE: You may not know this. But that's the "Star Wars" movie, "The Force Awakens." It's become the highest grossing film in American history. Who knew "Avatar" had the record before? Ticket sales are expected to break the $760 million mark. That's just in North America. It's gone way past $1 billion. The "Star Wars" film opens in China this weekend, the second biggest movie market in the world, possibly the galaxy.
Tech innovators are in Los Vegas for CES, the technology show that's been around for about 50 years. It shows off the newest cars, televisions, refrigerators. The event runs until Saturday.
Some of the companies at this year's show, trying to simplify your commute and CNN's Samuel Burke took Microsoft's new driverless car out for a spin and didn't bang it up at all.
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SAMUEL BURKE, CNN "CNN MONEY" CORRESPONDENT: We've been in a lot of self-driving cars. But the point of this technology is what it can do with you in the drive's seat, now that the car is driving for you.
What do I do?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You drive off normally. When you're confident, when we're between the lines, you can resume the system using the resume button.
BURKE: Push resume. It took over. I can feel it take over the steering wheel right away. My feet are off the pedals. Hands up.
A person just appeared on the dashboard.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We reduced the speed because we are by a pedestrian.
BURKE: Do you think that people will be wearing smart bands all the time?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It could be a Smartphone. Your Smartphone has the capability of your band. More or less everybody is carrying a Smartphone.
BURKE: We're coming up to a stoplight that's red. How does it know? Does it have a camera?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. The traffic light is communicating to Wi-Fi with the car.
BURKE: Now, going yellow. It takes off again. Do you think these traffic lights are the future? I've been in other driverless cars where they have a camera.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For high level of automation, it will be necessary.
BURKE: Smart cars will need smart devices around them. This is a smart car embedded with Microsoft technology. I can talk to the car.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. In the future, what will happen if the driver is not needed for the driving task, he can be productive. You can use the display. And you can talk to Katana.
Katana, what's the weather in Las Vegas?
BURKE: Send an e-mail to Peter.
KATANA: What should it say?
[01:55:08] BURKE: Hey, Peter, I'm running behind schedule. Can we move lunch to later?
KATANA: Send it? Add more? Make changes?
BURKE: Send it.
This car will work in a highly connected environment. So we have to wait for the rest of the world to catch up.
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VAUSE: Samuel Burke, thank you.
Lottery players in the United States, try again. Nobody won the jackpot for Wednesday's $500 million Powerball. Let's look at the winning numbers that were winning for nobody. The jackpot is estimated at $675 million, the largest ever in U.S. history. There's one more chance.
You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.
For our viewers in North America, "Amanpour" is up next.
For everybody else, the news continues with Rosemary Church and Errol Barnett after a short break.
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[02:00:13] ERROL BARNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Chinese markets suspend trading for the second time in four days --
