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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Obama Holding Meetings on Ferguson; U.S. Couple Held in Qatar; Cyber Monday Boom; Rangers Try to Save the Rhino

Aired December 01, 2014 - 04:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Focusing on Ferguson. President Obama spending his day talking about Ferguson with his cabinet and civil rights leaders and police. Can they come up with the strategy to lessen the anger between communities and law enforcement?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The nightmare for a U.S. couple in Qatar is not over. After they were cleared in the death of their daughter, the country still will not let them return to the United States. What's going on here? We have a live report.

ROMANS: It's Cyber Monday. The biggest online shopping day of the year. What some companies are doing to get you to break out your credit card, ahead.

Oh, yes, the whole scam to get you to spend your money.

BERMAN: It should be a long weekend. I thought it was a federally mandated long weekend.

ROMANS: It's not a real holiday, folks.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: And I'm John Berman. Great to see you. Thirty-one minutes past the hour right now.

There is a big series of meetings at the White House today about Ferguson and the aftermath there. The president devoting his day to discussions with local law enforcement officials, young civil rights leaders, elected officials, faith leaders. The meetings will cover everything from federal programs that provide military equipment to local police to building trust between law officers and the communities they police.

Attorney General Eric Holder heads to Atlanta today with the same mission. He will kickoff a series of nationwide public conversations with a meeting and speech tonight at the Ebenezer Baptist Church.

ROMANS: Now, the conversation of Ferguson has now extended to the football field. Five members of the St. Louis Rams raised their hands as they took the field against the Oakland Raiders. It's a "hands up, don't shoot" gesture that has it's something you've seen many times actually in a protest in Ferguson.

In Ferguson itself, the streets remained relatively quite Sunday, following the resignation of Officer Darren Wilson, he resigned, and the city's announcement of plans to increase minority representation on its police force.

Our Ed Lavandera is in Ferguson this morning with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, have quieted dramatically in the last weeks since the riots and the violence of one week ago. But Darren Wilson is no longer a member of the Ferguson Police Department. He turned in his resignation over the weekend. The mayor of the city accepted it, and it's also said that there will be no severance package or payments made out to Darren Wilson.

The mayor also focused on Sunday talking about bridging the gap between the African-American community here in Ferguson and its police department, also announcing a series of steps and incentives to bring more African-American police officers to the police force.

But the mayor here sounding squarely like he wants to focus on the future and turning this page on this bad time.

MAYOR JAMES KNOWLES III, FERGUSON, MISSOURI: I think it's best that at this point, we continue to move on as a community. Officer Wilson and his family had moved on. And at this point, the city of Ferguson is looking to -- you know, again, talk about how we can bring this community together.

LAVANDERA: And, John and Christine, really the focus also is on getting businesses that have been shutdown over the course of the last week back up and running. What is interesting is you look up and down many streets here in Ferguson, stores that have had to board up, just kind of organically, people have started painting these boarded up windows, kind of the symbols that have been left behind after such a terrible week -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Nice to see that city coming back to life.

Nine officers involved in the 2012 shooting in Cleveland are suing the city and police officials alleging racial discrimination. This federal suit claims a pattern of substantially harsher discipline for non-black officers and for African-Americans in officer involved shootings of African-American. The incident cited in the suit happened in November 2012 that involved a 25-minute chase and ended in a hail of 137 bullets. Two unarmed people died, both African- Americans. The suit comes on the heels of last Sunday's deadly police shooting of a 12-year-old boy in Cleveland.

ROMANS: All right. After nearly two years jailed in Qatar, an American couple's hope for freedom is raised and then dashed. Matthew and Grace Huang were convicted of starving their adopted daughter to death in 2013. They were sentenced to three years in prison in Qatar. On Sunday, an appeals judge set the couple free, but when they got to the airport in Doha, immigration officials blocked them from boarding their plane.

I want to get to Riham Shebl. She's a Doha-based journalist attended yesterday's hearing in court.

What can you tell us about the couple's legal status? They have been fighting for freedom and for their innocence now for several years. An appeals court goes their way. They go to the airport and then they are stopped. Why?

RIHAM SHEBL, FREELANCE JOURNALIST (via telephone): Hi, Christine. I think there are some facts that people are not aware of, which is the procedure to get travel bound listed in Qatar after the court clears a person. It takes a few days, because a recent judgment has to be obtained from court, signed by the judge, in order for the airport authorities to be notified. And also, a petition has to be filed with the attorney general and prosecutor's office in order for the travel ban to be lifted.

So, it is a bureaucratic procedure that takes a few days. And I'm not sure if it was a lapse in communication between the parties that led the Huangs and the representatives from the agency working with the Huangs to think they can go to the airport without obtaining -- without fulfilling this procedure or they were guaranteed that they could do it without necessarily going through the procedure.

So, I think this is where they stand now. There isn't a new arrest warrant against them, because they were able to leave the airport last night and stay at a hotel. I spoke to Eric Volz from the David Agency a couple of hours ago. And he said they are booked for another flight today in the afternoon and they're going to try to go to the airport again.

I'm not sure if they have spoken with their lawyer to see if he filed that petition with the prosecutor's office or not. So, there seems to be a miscommunication between the different parties right now.

BERMAN: A miscommunication or red tape. Certainly, if you look at it from the perspective from those in the United States, I mean, it looks as though this is a legal system that is very, very different than what we are certainly used to. This family is essentially trapped in Qatar, right?

SHEBL: Well, it seems to have been like that for the past several years. I think yesterday's judgment was satisfactory to the Huangs and definitely to the media watching closely this case. The judge went through extensive measures to explain how his panel reached the verdict and found them completely innocent.

By the way, they were not convicted with starving the child to death, they were charged with that by the prosecutor. But the conviction was that they put the child in harm's way, because there was no evidence that they actually starved her to death. And yesterday, the judge went through that evidence and said there was

no evidence to show they even neglected the child. And they were passed as innocent.

So, I think it's just a matter of waiting and seeing how many more days this procedure will be fulfilled in order for them to fly home safely. As it is now, there isn't another arrest warrant against the couple.

ROMANS: There is none. All right. Riham Shebl, thank you so much. Doha-based journalist who attended that hearing yesterday for the Huang family.

BERMAN: Thirty-eight minutes after the hour right now.

How far you can go in a Facebook or Twitter post may be decided in a case before the Supreme Court this morning. Anthony Elonis is hoping to get his conviction for threatening his soon-to-be ex-wife overturned. Elonis posted graphically violent rap lyrics about his wife on Facebook, and he was sentenced to 44 months in prison. He claims those posts were artistic, cathartic, free speech. So far, he has lost his appeal.

Today, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she will be back on the bench. That follows last week's heart surgery.

New concern about sports related concussions after the body of missing Ohio State football player Kosta Karageorge was discovered on Sunday. He was found in a dumpster with a handgun nearby. Police say it appears Karageorge died from a self inflicted gunshot. His parents said he had several concussions and confusion spells and complained of those symptoms before he disappeared following practice last Wednesday.

In a statement, Ohio State athletic officials say they are shocked and saddened by his death. His body was identified because of his tattoos.

ROMANS: All right. Thirty-nine minutes past the hour.

Cyber Monday if you believe in those kind of made up retail holidays. In the United States, online retail sales are expected to reach a record $2.6 billion. It's a 15 percent increase from last year, 127 million people are expected to join in at least shop around to get a deal.

Now, this has become the biggest online shopping day of the year. It is no longer a one-day event. It was originally devised in 2005 to get you to spend money online if you didn't spend over the weekend. Web sites now pushing week-long deals to accommodate more convenient shopping, to give you more opportunities to spend your hard-earned money. Some savvy shoppers will hold out, though, for better deals closer to Christmas. The dirty little truth is, the big steals are before the holidays and right after the holidays.

The stock market right now. Stocks are looking weak despite all of this spending talk and spending frenzy. U.S. stock futures are lower, so are stocks around the world. The big story there, oil prices are plunging. Oil prices back now to about $64 a barrel. Really could have a destabilizing effect for companies that are dealing in the energy industry. It's got a lot of ramifications for Saudi Arabia production and U.S. production. A lot going on.

BERMAN: It has geopolitical ramifications for Iran and Russia. Look, it's terrific during for the holiday shopping. It's great. It's a huge tax break basically. However, it is dropping so low, it will have an impact on exploration and a lot of other things going on in this country right now.

Twenty minutes until the hour. An impressive effort under way to save the most endangered animals. CNN goes along with rangers in South Africa as they try to protect rhinos from poachers. A live report next.

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ROMANS: All right. Their guns fire only tranquilizer darts. But rangers in South Africa's Kruger National Park say they are at war to save rhinos from poachers.

The South African government says more than a thousand of these huge animals have been poached just this year.

BERMAN: CNN's Diana Magnay joins us now with more on the government's effort to protect the rhino by basically hiding them.

Diana, you have done remarkable some reporting here.

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Thanks.

Well, this is what they are doing. They are trying to relocate the rhinos close to the Mozambique border where a lot of the poachers are coming into the Kruger National Park. They are trying to move the rhinos from this poaching hot spot into a much safer, more intensively protected part of the park and then possibly to other nature reserves and game parks further away from the border.

Of course, there are poachers from within South Africa, but the rangers tell me the problem is coming from Mozambique and shares a 250-kilometer border with the Kruger National Park. The Kruger Park itself is home to about 10,000 rhinos and they are being slaughtered at a rate of some two or three even a day. People were telling me they think there are 10 to 15 poaching groups within the park at any one time. And all of this, John and Christine, is fuelled by this belief in Asia that rhino horns, first of all, are a status symbol and secondly it has a medicinal purpose. And that notion has long been disproven, but it still has not cut the demand for rhino horn, which effectively makes the rhino one of the most valuable assets on Earth, Christine.

BERMAN: And, obviously, moving a rhino is not an easy thing, and that's just one part of the effort here to try to save them. MAGNAY: Moving it is extraordinary to watch, especially the speed

with which they do this. They have to dart the rhino from a helicopter in the air with a tranquilizer and an immobilizer. And then it's down on the ground, and they very quickly work to get DNA samples, micro chip the horn to trace the horn if it is poached to a particular carcass and make possibly then make inroads to who did the killing and which criminal syndicates were running the trade, et cetera, et cetera.

And within about 15 minutes, they give the animal another reversal drug to get on its feet. It's loaded on a trailer and off on its way. And the good news is they do reintegrate into the new habitats very easily apparently. They're a bit doozy at the beginning, but then they integrate with the animals easily within 12 hours, they seem to be very happy.

But you're right, it is part of a much bigger picture that needs to start really with cutting the demands in Asia.

Back to you.

ROMANS: Wow, that is something.

Diana Magnay, thanks for that reporting.

Forty-seven minutes past the hour.

Ray Rice wins his appeal and his wife, Janay rice breaks her silence. What she says about the night her husband knocked her unconscious.

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BERMAN: It is World AIDS Day today. And people around the world are expected to take part in events to raise awareness for prevention and funding.

In United States, about 1.2 million people are living with HIV, the virus that cause AIDS, and 34 million people around the world have it.

To help raise awareness, Prince Harry is going to join a host of other celebrities, revealing a secret online video. This is part of a campaign to help end the stigma and shame of AIDS that surrounds HIV.

ROMANS: Harry's secret.

Fifty-one minutes past the hour.

Protests have erupted across Egypt after the court cleared former President Hosni Mubarak of criminal charges. Egyptian prosecutors say they will appeal the acquittal of Mubarak. The former president was cleared of causing the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the 2011 uprising that toppled him from power.

Meanwhile, at least one person is dead and several injured in clashes between police and protesters in Cairo. BERMAN: Some terrifying moments for a reporter and a woman that he

was interviewing caught on video. Sean Delancey with our affiliate WCHS was just begging to ask questions when they both heard gunshots.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we're going to start off the hardest question of all.

(GUNSHOTS)

(EXPLETIVE DELETED)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are they really shooting?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: This happened in Charleston, West Virginia, when Delancey was following up on a story about a different shooting. Delancey and the woman he was speaking with, they were not hit. Police are now looking for the gunman.

ROMANS: Ray Rice and his wife Janay are speaking publicly for the first time since the Baltimore Ravens running back was suspended indefinitely for assaulting here, she was then his fiancee, in a hotel elevator. In an NBC "Today" show interview, Janay talked about her feelings immediately after that incident.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANAY RICE, RAY RICE'S WIFE: I was furious. We came home and we didn't talk the entire ride. I didn't speak to him the entire ride home.

He tried to talk to me. I didn't want to hear anything. I just knew he hit me and I was completely over it. I was done. I didn't want to hear anything. I just didn't want to entertain him, anything that he has to say, any explanation. Of course, in the back of my mind and in my heart, I know that our relationship would not be over because I know that this isn't us and it's not him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: In a separate interview, Janay told ESPN the two have been attended counseling and they are more committed and they are stronger since the incident. Ray Rice won his appeal of the NFL suspension and has been reinstated. He is now free to sign with any team who will have him.

BERMAN: As for the teams playing right now, a possible Super Bowl preview yesterday. The Green Bay Packers, yes, they beat the New England Patriots, 26-21. It was really great game. Aaron Rodgers threw two touchdown passes. The Packers held off Tom Brady for victory. Now, Tom Brady, the good thing is he looks even more handsome when he's angry. So, we have that going for us now. Both teams are now 9-3 on the season.

There was another winner last night: Peyton Manning. He didn't play a great game, but he didn't have to. The Denver Broncos lead the Chiefs, 29-16. The Broncos also 9-3. But the Patriots hold the tie break in the AFC.

ROMANS: The Packers are looking good.

BERMAN: Packers looked fantastic last night. Aaron Rodgers --

ROMANS: (INAUDIBLE) fans grudgingly says the Packers looking good.

All right. Fifty-four minutes past the hour.

Gas prices drop again. The price of oil collapsing. Will gas prices fall even further? It is good for consumers, but what does this mean for the rest of the world?

We're going to get an early start on your money, next.

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ROMANS: Almost the top of the hour. Let's get an early start on your money this Monday.

Not a very good start to December for stocks around the world. Asian shares ending the day lower, mostly lower. European stocks moving lower right now. U.S. stock futures are moving lower.

But I mean, let's relish November for a bit. A great month for stocks it turned out to be. Dow and S&P 500 both climbed 2 1/2 percent. NASDAQ gained 3 1/2 percent in just one month.

December historically is the second best month for stocks. But so far, today, not off for a really great start.

So, what's troubling markets? Well, freefalling oil prices. Right now, crude oil is $64 a barrel. Do you see that chart? That is the lowest in five years.

Oil prices down 40 percent from the summer peak. Quickly, 40 percent right off the price for a barrel of crude. So, why is it spiraling downward? Production is booming here in the U.S. and last week, OPEC countries decided not to trim output. That means over supply and driving prices down. Global demand is weakening.

You will see it at the pump. The average price at the pump for a gallon of gas is $2.78. And gas is expected to stay this cheap through next year. Some, John Berman, predicting gas prices as low as $2.50 for much of 2015.

BERMAN: A cautionary tale, though. Every time the markets gone really high and really low in oil over the last 10, 15 years, it seems to snap the other direction nearly right away. So, don't get greedy.

EARLY START continues right now. (MUSIC)