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CNN International: Trump Eyes Win in New Hampshire After Iowa Landslide; Haley Gains Ground on Trump in New Hampshire Polls; China's Population Falls Again as Economy Stumbles. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired January 17, 2024 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Bianca Nobilo.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Max Foster. If you're just joined us, let me bring you up to date with our top stories this hour.
The top three U.S. Republican presidential candidates are now stumping for votes in New Hampshire. Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley are hoping to slow Donald Trump's momentum if his resounding win in Iowa following that Iowa caucus resounding win.
Now in Davos, Switzerland, this hour, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaking at the World Economic Forum. After that, the U.N. Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, expected to give a special address to world leaders gathered at that annual summit.
NOBILO: The political landscape in New Hampshire is much different than in conservative Iowa. CNN's Omar Jimenez spoke with voters about the upcoming primary.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From a cold Iowa to a snowy New Hampshire, where voters here are in the final frigid stretch to their primary.
JIMENEZ: How long have you been voting in New Hampshire?
SHELLEY ROY, NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTER: All my life.
JIMENEZ: Do you think what happened in Iowa is going to happen here in New Hampshire?
ROY: I think that is a strong possibility of yes.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Former President Trump swept 98 out of 99 counties in Iowa. Some feel it's going to be more of the same in the Granite State.
JIMENEZ: And why do you feel that way?
ROY: There's a lot of people who are -- won't come out and actually say that they're going to vote for him but will vote for him.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): The question is how that dynamic will play against Nikki Haley, who's jumped in recent polls, some that show her within single digits of the former president in New Hampshire. Despite her third place Iowa finish, she polled well with moderates, which New Hampshire has a lot of. And she's now trying to position New Hampshire's primary as a two-person race to voters.
JIMENEZ: Cheers. Want some Baileys in that?
GARY HOULE, NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTER: Yeah, I know, yeah.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Voters like Gary Houle, who says he's done with Trump for now.
HOULE: I believe in honesty. I watch all these things that are going on with him right now. And I have to believe that a lot of -- it's kind of true.
[04:35:00]
I am looking for an alternative Republican to run against Joe Biden. I'm leaning toward Nikki Haley.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): But he painted a crucial bottom line with the former president.
HOULE: I ruled him out in the primary. But you know if he were to win the nomination, then he'd be ruled back in.
JIMENEZ: You were surprised a little bit by the results in Iowa. Why is that?
HOULE: I just didn't think he'd have that clear momentum.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Kevin Clark voted for Trump in 2016, wanting a change.
KEVIN CLARK, NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTER: We got a bigger change than I think any of us expected.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Years later, he wants a change again, but this time from Trump.
JIMENEZ: Do you think it'll be different here in New Hampshire?
CLARK: I certainly hope so. I think New Hampshire people, they judge things on their own. They don't go by polls. They don't decide important elections by anything other than what they think is best for the country and for them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody got stickers?
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Some Trump voters are confident he'll repeat.
KAYLYN CAULFIELD, NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTER: You can feel it. There's no doubt in my mind.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): Other independents are still making up their minds.
CAULFIELD: Everyone here is different, so I'm not sure, you know, who's going to, you know, feel which way.
JIMENEZ: Yes.
CAULFIELD: So, it'll be interesting to see.
JIMENEZ (voice-over): To see whether it's more of the same or legitimate challenge to the former president. The countdown is on. Rain, shine, or snow.
JIMENEZ: Even with weather like this?
CAULFIELD: Oh, yes. We're New Hampshire people.
JIMENEZ: And with the snow part of this weather, we've actually already seen a little bit of a similar dynamic to what we saw in Iowa. Some, including Ron DeSantis, have had to cancel at least one event due to treacherous road conditions because of this snow.
That said, seven days is going to count down pretty quickly in this final stretch to the primary. And remember, the voting population in New Hampshire is much different than Iowa. For one, many more moderates here in the state, which is a dynamic that, at the very least, Nikki Haley is hoping to take advantage of.
Omar Jimenez, CNN, Manchester, New Hampshire.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Donald Trump picking up the endorsement of a key conservative senator and one-time rival. Ted Cruz of Texas says he's backing the former president. Cruz tells Fox News he believes the race for the Republican nominee is over and is proud to endorse Trump. The two were bitter rivals in 2016, with Trump launching personal attacks on Cruz's wife and father. But Cruz eventually supported Trump.
NOBILO: Illinois is the latest U.S. state to consider whether Donald Trump should be on the ballot in this year's presidential race. The Board of Elections will meet in the day ahead to start that process. No decision is expected until after a hearing officer finishes an investigation.
FOSTER: An advocacy group claims that Trump's role in the January 6th insurrection disqualifies him for office under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal of Trump's ballot ban in Colorado.
NOBILO: The British government has approved a controversial $2.5 billion plan to create a carbon-negative power plant. But some climate experts say the technology may not be so green. The idea is to capture carbon emissions from generators that burn biomass, that's mostly wood pellets, and then store that carbon under the North Sea.
FOSTER: Burning biomass is considered carbon neutral because the emissions are offset by the growth of new trees. But critics say it takes decades for those emissions to be reabsorbed by the trees and plants.
NOBILO: More than 100 million people are under windchill alerts across the U.S. with freezing temperatures set to linger throughout the day. Some places could see windchills as low as minus 25 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 31 degrees Celsius.
FOSTER: It comes after multiple low temperatures hit record levels. Records being broken across the southern U.S. on Tuesday. The coldest being in Harrison, Arkansas, which hit minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 20 Celsius. That breaks a previous record which was set in 1977.
NOBILO: The winter weather brought snow to Washington, D.C., where a snowball fight broke out on the National Mall thanks to the district's own Snowball Fight Association.
FOSTER: Wow. How often are they active in the year?
NOBILO: Well, the winter months, one would imagine, but now is their time.
FOSTER: Yes, absolutely. Here in the U.K., people in Liverpool woke up to a snowy landscape as well. Some schools were closed and these children took advantage of the unexpected holiday to build a snowman. Everyone in America is fighting. In Liverpool, they're making men.
NOBILO: Now, the snow also led to disruptions in traffic and travel and shops and stores delayed opening. Local Met Office expects temperatures will remain bitterly cold, but they will be accompanied by plenty of sunshine, which could spell a dangerous time for that snowman.
FOSTER: It could. It's nice when it's light and bright in the bad weather.
NOBILO: I just absolutely loathe the cold weather. It was arctic yesterday. I breathed in and it hurt.
FOSTER: I opened that one up. Bianca's mentioned that a couple of times.
NOBILO: Yes, and the British do complain about the weather, but now it's legit because it's really, really cold.
FOSTER: You're very British at this point.
[04:40:00]
NOBILO: Now ahead, major turbulence for low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines after a judge rejects plans for a merger.
FOSTER: Plus, China's population falls for the second year in a row. We're live in Beijing with the latest on the country's economy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NOBILO: Welcome back.
The U.S. stock market continued its rocky start to the new year with all three major indices ending on Thursday -- Tuesday, rather. I'm getting ahead of myself.
FOSTER: You are there.
NOBILO: In the red.
FOSTER: The Dow fell more than 200 points. Those stocks ended the day off the session's lows.
This all comes as Treasury yields are climbing. The 10-year yield rose above 4 percent.
And we're now just hours away from a new trading day on Wall Street. Here's how the U.S. futures are faring this hour. As you can see, gloomy like the weather.
Shares of the low-cost U.S. airline Spirit tanked on Tuesday, though. That's by 47 percent after a federal judge blocked its $3.8 billion merger with budget airline JetBlue.
NOBILO: The U.S. Justice Department sued in March to halt the deal, marking the first time in more than 20 years that the government has tried to block a U.S. airline merger. It argued that the deal would increase airfares for travelers and then reduce competition in the market.
FOSTER: Spirit and JetBlue say they disagree with the ruling. However, JetBlue's shares rose nearly 5 percent.
NOBILO: And more airplane news.
Two planes are damaged after clipping wings at an airport in Japan. It happened on Tuesday when a Korean Air passenger jet that was taxiing made contact with a Cathay Pacific plane.
FOSTER: No-one on board the Korean Air jet was injured and the Cathay Pacific jet was empty at the time, thankfully.
NOBILO: China has said that its population has fallen for a second year in a row. And that's sparking concerns about a deepening demographic crisis that could have major implications for the country's economy.
[04:45:00]
FOSTER: Beijing says China's economy grew at a rate of 5.2 percent last year, beating expectations, but it's still one of the worst performances in more than three decades. NOBILO: CNN's Marc Stewart is live for us in Beijing. Marc, I was
really surprised to learn that it was only in 2021 that the Chines Government further relaxed the limit on the among of children that couples could have to three children. Obviously, they knew that this demographic crisis would come.
What policies does the government intend to pursue to try and encourage people to start families, to try and ward off this deepening economic issue?
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's trying to offer people money, Bianca, but that's still not necessarily working.
Look, this is all about productivity. In order to have a strong economy, you need to have a strong workforce. And if people aren't having children, that can be a problem. If we look at the economic data that was just released, sure, it has to do with the real estate crisis, the high youth unemployment, but also this aging population.
You know, for a lot of young people, they don't want the expense of raising a child. And it's something that they discuss. In fact, there was a singles event, almost a matchmaking event in Shanghai recently, where a lot of young people talked about these concerns. Let's take a listen to what one attendee had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MISS YOJI, MIXER ATTENDEE (through translator): I'm actually paying attention to these marriage and childbearing policies myself, but I think many policies treat the symptoms rather than the root causes and don't really care about the real needs of young people.
For example, real-life pressures like housing prices, work, and academic qualifications, which are improving, but in fact also delay the age of marriage and childbearing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: Now, as we've talked about before, China for decades had this policy where families could only have one child, and eventually it was relaxed because of these population concerns.
And the government has pushed all of these different incentives, including financial incentives, yet it appears not to be working, Max and Bianca, because we still have this declining birth rate. And as we saw in 2023, a loss of about 2 million people. That's the decline that we saw.
NOBILO: Just a quick follow-up, Marc. Was that a masquerade singles party?
FOSTER: Yes, you need to explain.
STEWART: I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. Say that one more time.
NOBILO: We were just asking you if it was a masquerade singles party because everyone was dressed in fancy dress, wearing masks.
STEWART: You're catching me off guard. Well, you know, it was a social event, so I guess that's indeed what it was.
NOBILO: Intriguing. Well, Marc Stewart in Beijing, always entertaining and brilliant analysis.
FOSTER: We can always see his face.
STEWART: You got me flummoxed. Thank you.
FOSTER: The Japanese tech company at the center of Britain's post office scandal says it has a moral obligation to compensate the victims. Glitches in Fujitsu's software led to hundreds of postal workers being falsely accused and convicted of theft and fraud over a period of decades.
Speaking at a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday, the company's European boss said he was truly sorry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL PATTERSON, FUJITSU EUROPEAN DIRECTOR: I think there is a moral obligation for the company to contribute, and I think the right place to determine that is when our responsibility is very clear. There are many parties involved in this travesty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NOBILO: The scandal which took place between 1999 and 2015 is considered one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British history. 700 people were falsely convicted of criminal offences.
Max, we've been speaking about this quite a lot because it's amazing that a drama made by ITV has been able to make the political changes and finally get the justice for these people that politicians and the media haven't been able to achieve.
FOSTER: Yes, we've been aware of it for so long, haven't we? And it's sort of been an incremental development. And it was all about numbers, you know, the number of people and the accounting system and then this drama, brilliantly, brought it all together and really brought the characters out.
NOBILO: Humanized it.
FOSTER: But to say it ended in 2015 is sort of inaccurate because in that hearing yesterday, they were saying that only three people had been fully compensated out of hundreds. Their lives are still utterly ruined, their reputations in tatters. I mean, it's a real, you know, underdog story, but horrifically real at the same time.
NOBILO: Absolutely. Just ahead for you, we'll show you the new official portrait of the King of England.
[04:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NOBILO: American Coco Gauff is headed to the next round of the Australian Open. I said it with an accent again, Australian Open. After beating compatriot Caroline Dolehide in straight sets.
The number four seed will play another American, Alycia Parks, in round three. And 16-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva, upset and heavily favored Ons Jabeur -- Max keeps looking at me when I'm trying to pronounce his name. Ons Jabeur, the world's number six.
And in the men's game, American Christopher Eubanks is battling it out right now against fifth seed's Andrey Rublev. And top-ranked Novak Djokovic -- I know how to say that one -- is also playing today.
FOSTER: You should say it in a Croatian accent, though.
NOBILO: But he's Serbian.
FOSTER: I know that, but you've got the Croatian in you. Whenever you say an Australian name, you do an Australian accent and you're from New Zealand.
Now to the NFL, where multiple reports say Philadelphia Eagles center, Jason Kelce, is retiring. The 36-year-old veteran -- 36 and he's a veteran -- spent his entire 13-season career with the Eagles.
[04:55:00]
He was selected to play in the Pro Bowl seven times and is likely heading to the Hall of Fame as well.
His younger brother, Travis Kelce, he plays for the Kansas City Chiefs and is famously dating Taylor Swift. The brothers played against each other in last year's Super Bowl, which Kansas City won, of course.
NOBILO: That was good.
FOSTER: Yes.
NOBILO: Eternal rivalry.
FOSTER: Stories in the spotlight this hour. U.K.'s King Charles III has a new official portrait that will hang in public buildings across the country. It's taken by Hugo Bonan.
The King wears a Royal Navy Admiral of the Fleet uniform, if you're interested, adorned with medals. The government says courts, schools and councils can now request free copies of the oak-framed portrait.
NOBILO: And do you get a free copy of this as a royal correspondent? Do they send you one?
FOSTER: No, I don't get anything free from them.
They didn't really modernize, but it doesn't look like that, but actually he's smiling a bit, which we normally have with the uniform.
NOBILO: A bit of a Mona Lisa vibe.
FOSTER: Yes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROB SUISTED, NATURESPIC.COM: Here we've got A23 iceberg. Largest iceberg in the world at the moment. About 4,000 square kilometers. Incredible forces of nature. They change their environment, they're so massive. This goes on and on and on forever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
That is nature photographer Rob Suisted, who captured this stunning image during a trip to the Antarctic Ocean. This iceberg is the largest in the world, roughly three times the size of New York City.
Hard to believe, it's been nearly 30 years since No Doubt's I'm Just a Girl was released. They've performed live together since 2015, but that is about to change.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We should hang out. Maybe we should do a show.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll do a show.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm into doing a show.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want to do a show?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got to think about it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. All right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: The band posted that video online, announcing they'll be one of four headline acts playing at the Coachella Music Festival in April alongside Lana Del Rey, Tyler, The Creator and Doja Cat.
Thanks for joining us here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster.
NOBILO: And I'm Bianca Nobilo. "EARLY START" is next right here on CNN.
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