sony as a corporation suffered significant damage. there were some threats against employees. so i think they made a mistake. >> the president, the press and the public are mistaken as to what actually happened. >> sony's ceo fires back at president obama over the north korean hacking scandal, claiming the studio made a calculated decision in the pulling of the "interview" from theaters. a shocker overnight the da says he knew jurors lied in the michael brown case but let mem e them stake take the stand

anyway. the surprising reaction she had after being handcuffed. good morning, everyone. >> it's 6:00 here on the east coast. good to have you with us. we begin with breaking news, stunning claims by forth korea. it says it has been framed by the u.s. in the explosive sony cyber attack. >> this as president obama and the fbi are calling out the attack on sony pick. mr. obama made no mistake, the u.s. will respond. >> they caused a lot of damage and we will respond. we will respond proportionally and we'll respond in place and time and manner that we choose. >> the president also had tough words for sony saying, bluntly, that the studio should not have cancelled the christmas day release of the filming "interview" after hackers

promised another 9-11. >> sony ceo fires back in an interview on cnn. >> i am sympathetic to the concerns they faced. having said all that, yes, i think they made a mistake. >> we have not caved. we have not given in. we have persevered and we have not backed down. we have always had every desire to have the american public see this movie. >> i wish they had spoken to me first. i would have told them do not get into a pattern in which you are intimidated by these kind of criminal attacks. >> we definitely spoke to senior adviser or a senior adviser in the white house to talk about this situation. did we talk to the president, himself, and talk to him about what was tran spireing as the theater was pulling back?

but the white house was certainly aware of the situation. >> all right. so what will the response be? u.s. officials tell cnn government agents have given the white house a variety of openings to respond to north korea. we are in seoul, south korea and a daily columnist and historian kim stanly is in london. what's on the menu here as it relates to the response to north kore korea? >> it's limited response. its not a buffet. we are talking about the diet special here because the united states does not have a lot of positions ahead of them. we're talking about a rogue nation. we don't have a lot of trade. there aren't a lot of tricks left in the united states to pull out. they are going to try. but everyone who has watched this conflict knows the response, there isn't that much that they can do other than try to add some additional

sanctions, but i want to add something, vector, where in just the last 20 minutes or so, we're getting the first official response from forth korea. this is very sporn important. because we have not heard from then since november 7th. the news agency is saying it is being framed, north korea adding they want to see the evidence that president obama and the fbi says that they have that they don't, that they can prove the opposite that, they have nothing to do with this and that north korea believes it has every right to retaliate, but retaliate on innocent movie-goers, they would choose to retaliate on the originators of the insult, of the movie. and curiously, they say that they want to work with perk, have a useful investigation to try to figure out who is the

source of the attack. the united states says they have evidence that north korea is behind the hack of the picture. >> is north korea being framed here? what is unusual about this hacking happens often in this new global tech society, but the hackers goaded sony time after time and try to embarrass them publicly. what do you think about this claim that north korea has been framed? >> well, it is unusual, but, actually, it's perfectly normal for a group of hackers, who obviously have political affiliation or sympathy with a foreign regime to do something and in na foreign rejeemg to say that has nothing to do with us. it was very obviously an attack, which is the advantage of the kremlin. but, of course the kremlin said that had absolutely nothing to do with us. actually, far from this being a

surprise, forth korea is following a particular pact. a cell apparently unfamiliar with the government but is rogue and the government is at tloibt say they have nothing to do with is. the problem is, western governments do not have the tools to link those too. they can't do it. so it's likely a few months down the line, we will see north korea get away with this. >> the denial is unusual. but what i said was the goading, the teasing of sony publicly, was that something at least i hadn't seen very often. let me play something the president said at his end of the yearinution conference on friday. we'll talk about it. >> we can not have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposeing censorship here in the united states. because if somebody is able to

intimidate somebody from releasing a movie, imagine what might happen if they see a documentary they don't like. >> we know the sony ceo the studio, has not given in. is it likely that this will koirnlg more cyber attacks? >> you mean the president saying they're going to fight back? he is going to encourage cyber attack, the sieber attack, itself? >> no, sony's pulling of the movie. >> well, yes, first of all, it's frustrating when he is very judge over this incident, when he language changes, he says things, folks the reality is when a private corporation is targeted like this, there is very little the government should be able do to intervene to tell the corporation what to do. sony pulled out, because, first of all, theaters refused to play it. sony wasn't right, but even if

they had done it, it was probably right to, the hackers invoked the memory of 9-11, will that encourage future hackers? maybe it will. we will see a collaboration between the february fib an private corporations to make sure when this thing happens again, those corporations know they have the government's backing. right now, all the president is doing is saying the government is right behind you, you just heard, there are no sanctions that can be put on north korea. there is nothing the government can do on this occasion. frankly, they were right to put the safety of their customers first. >> do we know about any communications between the u.s. and north korea, china had put out an op ed criticizing the film. do we know anything about this from either of those countries? >> well, the goad if china, that was to be expected.

here in asia, north korea is allowed to act because china fund it. that's a well-known fact. so that response is very predictedable. as far as communications, there is no official communication. i stress the word "official" between the united states and north korea. but if talking to many diplomats across asia, there are discussionings, they're very qui e. there are the spy games as you might imagine. there are discussions. here's what's important are these statements. you have to read the large statements, like the one we got this morning, ten whittle them down. what is forth korea trying to achieve? what is the next chess move? a lot of this, like a lot of propaganda out of north korea. a lot is show, the games underneath and the reality. >> tim stkim stanley, stick aro. tomorrow again at 10:00 a.m.

eastern, a lot of this will be raised then afternoon. a new shocker in the shooting death of ferguson shooter michael brown. in his first extensive interview, clearing officer daniel wilson last month, the da says some of the witnesses obviously lied under oath but he let them testify anyway. st. louis bob mccall said during a radio interview with ktrs yesterday, he had no regretz about letting the grand jury hear from non-credible witnesses, he says those witnesses will not face perjury charges. >> there were people who came in and, yes, absolutely lied under oath him some lied to the february fib. even though they're not under oath, it's a potential offense, a federal offence i thought it was much more important to present the entire picture and say, listen, this is what this witness says he saw, even though there was a building between where the witness says he was

and the events occurred. so they couldn't catch it. or the physical evidence didn't support what the witness is saying. it went both directions. i thought it was much more important the grand jury hear everything what the people have to say and they're in a perfect position to assess the credibility, which is what jurors do. >> as to the timing of when the decision was afounded, mccullough said he had no regretz t. late night announcement of the grand jury's decision triggered riots and violent protests in the streets of ferguson and nationwide peaceful demonstrations. meanwhile, in milwaukee, protesters angry over the shooting death o dantre hamilton, paralyzed the city on friday. officials say nearly 100 people were arrested. he was shot 14 times in april in a confrontation in the city park. the officer involved in his death has been fired.

hamilton's family says they want the officer to face criminal charges. there is video this morning showing the after math-of-that now infamous moment when ray rice punched his then fiancee janay palmer, this video shows the couple going through a range of emotions. first rice appeared apologetic, palmer appeared to angry will rebuff everything he had to say. later, security guards were there, finally you see them here kissing, newsling i guess you call it with ray rice in separate police cars. rice was suspended from the nfl after video of him hitting his then fiancee now wife if a hotel elevator surfaced on tmz. rice later won an appeal of that indefinite suspension. >> the cyber attack of sony, it really is just one aggression in a much moving digital war. hackers are constantly going

after the u.s. government. hear just how often these breaches happen. and chrysler is expanding its recall to over 3 million vehicles because of defective airbags and tell you which cars are now a part of that recall. . i've had moderate to severe plaque psoriasis most my life. but that hasn't stopped me from modeling. my doctor told me about stelara®. it helps keep my skin clearer. with only 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses... ... stelara® helps me be in season. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections

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all right. 15 after the hour the cyber terrorists who infiltrated sony's system took a mind-boggling amount of information, they sold so much data analysts says it will take more than a year for sony to go through it. >> now an investigation finds it is a peer drop in hackers and attacks, we have gone through records that have much, much more. >> reporter: every day the government is under attack. cyber attack. there were 61,000 hacks and security breaches throughout the u.s. government last year. >> there is an ad ver sari out there whose job it is to break into our systems. so somebody is trying 24/7, it is going to get much worse than it is today. >> reporter: the white house and networks were targeted. cyber attacks on u.s. government agencies are skyrocketing. >> that number hit more than

46,000 last year. >> cyber espionage is increasing at unprecedented rates. >> reporter: in january, 2014, they hit the army core of edge nears, grabbing sensitive information. they allegedly stole data on the nation's 85,000 dams, cluck their locations and the potential for fatalities if they were breached. >> people were stealing hard copies of paperwork and passing it off to our adversaries. today they can actually do that digitally and ache a magnitudes more data tan in the past. >> reporter: in july, 2013, hackers infiltrated the energy department, taking the personal data of more than 100,000 people. they lifted information including birthdays, social security and bank account numbers. >> government and industry are in a difficult battle against cyber adversaries. there are always sophisticated actors out there. for them, we have to assume an attack could occur. so organizations need to be prepared. >> reporter: the government spent $10 billion on cyber

security last year. but that can't defend against an employee who is downed on clicking a malicious link as one expert told me there is no good defence against a stupid user. >> we will go back to tim stanley. tim, we heard chris' report here. he says there is very little we can do to protect against an employee who is just clicking on a bad link, for instance, in some ways it makes others vulnerable as well within his company. what can a company do to essentially protect itself and what can the government do? >> just to confirm that report in terms of what we have written, gchq our secret service calculates 18% of hacks, companies, computers are down to someone not putting on a password or something like that. are you absolutely right. it's the elementary orors. it means the company versus got to work with security agencies, they need to work with employees to make sure they're not doing

silly things like using a password that's 123456. it sound silly a. lot of that is ending up in the hand of chinese or russian governments. >> explain to us, really, what's happening on the offense and the defense? it certainly seems like the lackers have the advantage here and that many of these companies, private companies as well as the government are really quite behind. >> absolutely. the advantage the hackers have is these are small cells. a little bit like terrorist cells, really, they often operate within the countries they are attacking. they keep themself distanced from the government. they are obviously supporting them. they don't operate, of course, by any kind of rules, what soemplt we know what they do often is the advantage of foreign governments. for example, in 2008, before the south acetia criess were hit, georgia's were hit. we know the chinese army is

supposed to be devoting an entire military division to cyber warfare. our problem best is we play by the rules. western governments are good at pro sessing information, because we got the bureaucracys a and the scale and the money to do it. we are bad at collecting information and fighting back. the basic problem is there is a kind of a sort of unofficial geneva convention when it comes to cyber terror. we are paying it, the other guys aren't. that's why they're getting away with it. >> all right. tim stanley, thank you very much. victor, you know, one of the other things in some areas there are no rules. we are making it up as we go along. >> the question is, should there be an official geneva convention? there is an unofficial one, should there be an official rule of law when it comes to the digital era? >> all right. let talk about the holidays. so many people are traveling

now. they will be hitting the roads. millions are flying. we will tell you why the state department is warning travels to be on high alert for potential terrorist attacks. plus, the latest on a disturbing case in australia. police make an arrest after eight kids are found dead in a home.

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a lot of other news to tell you about. >> the parents of a colorado shooting suspect james holmes has written a letter to the denver an public post. here's a part of it. we do not know how many would like to see our son killed. he is a human being gripped by severe ill inside. he killed 12 people. his trial is set to start next month. a woman in australia has been arrested on suspicion of killing eight people some of the victims are believed to have been stabbed. the 37-year-old suspect is now under police guard at a hospital. chrysler is exspanneding its recall of cars and trucks equipped with takata airbags.

the recall comes over fears that it can explode and send shrapnel to passengers. earlier, it was limited to high humidity only where they were believed to be more prone to ruptureing. >> sony's ceo fires back him still ahead, why he says president obama didn't know the script when the company pulled "the interview" from theaters. plus a holiday travel warning. why travelers are put on high alert through march. i'm angela, and i quit smoking with chantix. people who know me, they say 'i never thought you would quit.' but chantix helped me do it. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. it gave me the power to overcome the urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. some people had seizures while taking chantix. if you have any of these, stop chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any

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the terror attack in sydney has caused people to be extra kaugs cautious around the world. >> but president obama just reached his holiday destination. what he is going to be keeping an eye on while vacationing in hawaii. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> we are starting this half hour with the breaking news, a stunning claim by north korea. >> the rogue nation now says the being framed by the united states as a cull right in a cyber attack that forced sony to pull the release of the equipment "the interview." the central news agency says, quote, whoever is going to frame

our country for a crime should present concrete evidence. if america refuses our proposal of mutual investigation continues to link us to this case and talk about our actions in response, they will be met with serious consequences. >> all this is coming as the ceo of sony pictures fired back at president obama saying sony should not have cancelled the release in theaters. >> reporter: the president says sony made a mistake in pulling the film. did you make a mistake? >> no. i think actually the unfortunate part is in this incident the president, the press and the public are mistaken as to what actually happened. we do not own movie theaters. we cannot determine whether or not a movie will be played in movie theaters. so to sort of rehearse for a moment the sequence of events,

we experienced the worst cyber attack in american history and persevered for three-and-a-half weeks under enormous stress and enormous difficulty. and all with the effort of being out in the public and in the crucial moment when a threat came out from what was called the gop at the time threatening audiences who would go to the movie theaters. the movie theaters came to us one by one over the course of a very short period of time, we were completely surprised by it, and announced that they would not carry the movie. at that point in time we had no alternative but to not proceed with the the at trek release on the 25th of december. that's all we did. >> so you have not caved? >> we have not caved. we have not given in.

we have persevered. we have not backed down. we have always had every desire to have the american public see this movie. >> all right. can you see more of michael hinton's interview at 10:00 a.m. eastern sunday right here on cnn. an alarming warning from the state department this morning, if you are traveling during the holiday season the state department is now advising americans to be extra cautious. this is after that gunman in sydney took 17 people hostage. the alert says u.s. citizens should be extra cautious, maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to enhance their security. this travel alert expires march 19ing, 2015. we want to bring in our cnn global affairs analyst james reese. let's talk about this. we watched the sydney attack. it was just hor risk. now we got this warning here. tell us, put this in perspective. is this common to have something

like this? what is the significance of the travel? >> good morning. the snifkts of the travel is the years now of the intelligence that we have, candidly, the u.s. is not putting this adviser out. i have clients in indonesia, they receive from their hotels a hand document from the australian and the british consulates there with the same travel advisory. what the analysts are looking at, what has happened in the past sense -11, what are the historic chater and threats going on out there. unfortunately, this is a huge time for christians around the world. everyone is traveling for the holidays. it's a time when people need to be aware of what's going on around them. >> this is correct in the fact that this is the first time this has been issued, a global travel alert since august of 2013, this is after the al qaeda threat in yemen. i assume this is something that throughout the world is being taken very seriously? >> the lone wolf attacks are

starting to bother and put pressure on the intelligence services, like we have been talking now for several weeks an months now about these attacks, you can't know when it's going to happen. so it's really trying to get people out there, remind folks when seven trying to have a good time with their family and friends, be aware. watch the hands and what's happening. >> break it down for us, i know we got some details, saying these attacks can take place in public places, and if there are some things people can do to stay safe or try to. >> well, the one thing we always try to tell people is as you are walking around, pay attention. stay away from the large gatherings of western tourists. that's tough when you are in western bali, different areas of the world. i just flew in from dubai on thursday night. it's packed with people.

they're celebrating christmas and seven in a cheer. one of the things i like to tell people is hands don't lie. look for people's hands, if you see people place a bag on the ground, you know, report it. get out of the way. if something does happen, get to a place, get away, don't be an onlooker and look for the ems to him co in. >> very good advice. we want you to stay with us, we want to get your thoughts on another story we have been following a little later. yuschencrush taliban, that protesters attack on the school, it left mostly children dead. >> pakistani security force say at least five taliban insurgents, including a key xaernd were killed in peshawar.

>> the pakistan military not saying if those were killed, its members of the taliban, rather, or if they were connected to that school attack. >> and that school massacre, that has prompted the nation's prime minister to lift the moratorium on the death penalty in terrorism cases. >> 132 students were killed in that attack. the scene is absolutely horrific. nic robertson shows us the blood stains and the bullet holes inside the school. we have to warn you, especially because of this hour, that some of the images could be disturbing. >> reporter: this is where the taliban got into the school, they cut the barbed wire at the top of the ball, scaled it, another team got in here and then they took off towards the main buildings. they flew into here, the main auditorium. they split into two teams. it was full of children here taking classes. >> they shot me as soon as we

came in. we tried to run. i was shot in my shoulder. the people who came, they have no sense of humanity in them. >> reporter: so many of the children afraid, trying to hide underneath these benches. the class was going on, a brigadier was giving a lesson in first-aid. the dumbny my the operators, left where he fell and this is when things get really bad. the army says that the children fled for the door over here and the door here, a hundred of them were gunned down as they were trying to escape. cold blooded murder. everywhere you walk here, blood splaters all over the ground. the taliban not satisfied with tear killing downu down there, come up here into the computer lab. one look inside this room, you can see immediately what's happened. children gunned down, whether just typing at their computers,

classroom after classroom, a pair of grasses sitting here, child's pencils and pens lying on the floor, torn, pieces of schoolwork, the child has been writing in his lessons, here on the board, where the teacher would have been standing, bullet holes and the place where the teacher fell and this is where the final showdown took place. the administration block. one of the attackers blowing up his suicide vest here, pock marks from all the ball bearings inside his suicide vest and overhere, rubble on the floor. another suicide bomber had blown himself up. chaos, devastation, the principal's office down here. she's killed. and right at the end of the corridor, the last suicide bomber hoists himself up. the deputy principal hides in

there. she survives and this sheer what's left of the last attacker. nic robertson, cnn, peshawar, pakistan. >> it's just so hard to even watch. i want to bring back lt. col. james reese. let's talk about this, first of all, the taliban inside of pakistan, why are they so dangerous? why have we seen this unfold? >> they have been dangerous a long time. it's a culture. it is the islamic aspect, the extremism that they have. and they have, they want to overthrow the government of pakistan and it is a, it is a brawl that's been going on there for years. it's tough understand afghanistan. it really is horrific what's going on. just like what was said in this earlier segment, these people

play with no rules at all. >> that's very apparent. i want to bring this up. i got to see the work of the taliban if afghanistan when i was there covering the anniversary of 9/11. they attacked our u.s. embassy there. we saw the after math in a building that burned out and shot and killed people. give us a sense of the difference. is there a taliban that operates in pakistan and operates inside afghanistan? >> in really, in reality no, unfortunately the worst kept secret throughout the last ten, 12 years is elements of the pakistani government and the intelligent service at times support the taliban because of the intelligence aspects you get between afghanistan and india to their beast. so unfortunately, sometimes you peak your bed working with the

devil and it causes them, as a former military officer, i can't image to find out my children were killed while i'm out there fighting tore my country. it's devastating. >> these militants, they were responsible for what was a failed bombing in time's square four years ago, should we be concerned they are here in the united states? >> i don't know if i can tell you that, that the pakistan taliban are specifically in the united states, but do i believe they have influence and ways to get people that are doing things that can hurt us, absolutely, as well as these other extremist groups around here. we have oto stay vigilant. we have to continue to put budgets against these things. unfortunately, this is the way it will go for our children's lives. >> obviously, it's a very important one, colonel james reese, we thank you very much for your time this morning.

the president had this message at his year end news conference. >> when we work together, we can't be stopped. and now i'm going to go on vacation, malakaliki moka, everybody. mulhalo. >> they are kicking off their christmas vacation. when boris becker took me on a tour of his hometown, it seemed there was a memory on every corner. . >> this is the original course, when i picked up my first record for them. i want to show you my very first coach. it's the tennis wall. >> the tennis wall was your first coach? >> yes, within i was little and

my parent were too busy and i was too small and not allowed to go on court, this is where i played for hours, this is the city square. >> this is your homecoming? >> here we are. >> here we are. >> on the famous terrace. yeah, it looked so much bicker then. >> if the joys of german culture. beer and sausage.

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the obamas are saying aloha to hawaii this morning. the first family is taking a break from washington and soaking up some sun. not here, it's night. but sun at tear beach front of the home in honolulu. i should say a beach front home. not the obama's home. they will be there about two weeks. >> it's an annual tradition for the family, even before he became the president, we are sure he is going to play two rounds of golf, but before the president headed out for much needed business in washington, which included taking questions one last time from reporters.

jim acosta is at the white house. jim, what did the president say? >> reporter: president obama delivered a stern warning to north korea, suggesting the communist nation leaders will pay a big price for the sieber attack on sony. >> hello, everybody. >> reporter: on the most pressing issue facing him before he leaves walk, president obama said there will be a response for the hack attack that prompted sony to pull its movie "the interview" from theaters. >> they caused a lot of damage and we will respond. we will respond proportionally and we will respond in a place and time and manner that we choose. >> reporter: the president declined to specify whether that response would come in the form of sanctions or a u.s. cyber counterattack. but he echoed the complaints from hollywood to washington that sony created a bad precedent by caving to a dictator. >> yes, i think they made a mistake. i wish they had spoken to me first. i would have told them, do not

get into a president tern in which you are intimidated by these kind of criminal attacks. >> reporter: still, the president mocked north korea's behavior as a bigger joke than the punch leans in the seth rogen-james franco comedy. >> i love seth and i love james, but the notion that that was a threat to them i think gives you some sense of the kind of regime we are talking about here. >> reporter: for the president the confrontation comes as he is easing tensions with cuba. mr. obama defended his decision to formalize relations with the island even as he acknowledged democratic reforms won't come overnight. >> clang is going to come to cuba. it has to. >> reporter: he seemed to also tamp down speculation he may travel to cuba any time soon. something the white house didn't rule out. >> we are not at a stage here where me visiting cuba or

president castro coming to the united states is in the cards. >> reporter: mr. obama started his news conference, touting his accomplishments of 2014, taking a victory lap over the u.s. economy. >> take any met trek you want. american resurgence is real. >> reporter: to comments about his executive actions, he challenged the soon to be gop congress to work with him on immigration reform and he appeared to dismiss the economic benefits of building the keystone pipeline. >> at issue in keystone is not american oil. it is canadian oil. >> reporter: but he conceded big problems remain such as the racial tensions that flared up in recent weeks after ferguson. >> there are specific instances, at least, where, where the -- where law enforcement doesn't feel as if it's being applied in a color blind fashion. >> reporter: one thing that is worth photoing about the news

conference, all the questions came from women in the white house press core. the president will be spending the next two weeks in hawaii on his annual family vacation. he says he has a list of movies to wall he did not say whether "the interview" will be one of them. >> you heard the president say sony made a mistake in pulling the interview from the release. so the president of sony picture. he disagrees. we will hear from michael litton in our next hour. still ahead, a family sues a family restaurant. they claim the store killed their parents t. murder weapon. we'll tell you what that was. i've always loved exploring and looking for something better. that's the way i look at life. especially now that i live with a higher risk of stroke due to afib, a type of irregular heartbeat, not caused by a heart valve problem. i was taking warfarin, but wondered if i kept digging, could i come up with something better. my doctor told me about eliquis... for three important reasons. one, in a clinical trial, eliquis was proven to reduce the risk of stroke better than warfarin.

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there are five things to know for your "new day." . >> first, a family is suing the bob evans chain, says meatloaf at the restaurant killed the couple. the children say the parents became violently ill after the meal and died a few months later. this happened in 2012. bob evans said the suit is quote entirely without merit. no. 2, terror on a georgia freeway after a fedex truck slams into a police car. you got to watch the carefully. you can see an officer get out of his vehicle to make a routine traffic stochl when he returns to the car, a fedex trailer

barrels into his vehicle. according to wgcl, rescue teamles had to use the just as of life to pull the driver from the truck after its overturned. officials say the driver failed to stay in his lane. no word yet on his condition. the police officer was not seriously injured. all right, no. 3, a woman in california will be spending christmas in jail after being arrested for allegedly stealing christmas presents from neighborhood door steps. all right. so this is the second time she's been caught, police say, cussing martha lampley was out on bail when they caught her swiping presents again. the first time around, police discovered a vault filled with clothes and jewelry and stacks of shoes. >> no. 4, a maine employee is being called a hero after she stopped a man abducting a two-year-old girl, her instinct

kicked in when she saw him grab the girl by the wrist. she rushed over and told the man to let the girl go. he is now under arrest. no. 5, justin bieber's population is waneing. oh, say it isn't so, at least on instagram the site says it's delete millions of spam accounts in what many people online are calling the instagram rapture. it's an overstatement i think. bieber lost about 13.5ple followers about 15% of his followers. major holiday traffic, high winds, possible flooding. >> and snow, snow, possibly. parts of the country can expect a white christmas. what does it mean for travel plans? we are following breaking news, we received the first official response from north korea on the sony hacking since december 7th when this all started to unfold.

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ne procrastinators, listen up. >> that's me. >> today is super saturday,

otherwise known as the last saturday before christmas. >> it's going to be a busy one. especially for me, i haven't done any shopping. >> i'm done. >> i'll get it done. retail watchers say it may be even bigger tan black friday with an estimated 10 billion in sales alone. macy's, kohl's will be open non-stop, amazon and best buy are stretching out dates for a best delivery date. there is some serious weather out there that you might have to try to work around. >> so i will bring in our cnn meteorologists, give us a sense of what we are dealing with over the next couple days. >> it looks like in the next 48 hours, this very powerful pacific system takes aim at washington, oregon and california, just about everybody there expecting heavy rainfall, especially in some of the coastal communities. you could see upwards of ten inches of rain are. the snow levels are rising. that's because this specific moisture is a little warmer. some are referring to this as

the pine an him express. needless to say, we have this long moisture aimed at portland and seattle and northwestern california. this is where we have flash flood watch itself out and warnings him some of the mountain snowfall could be between one and three feet. now, aaa says there will be as many as 90 million people on the roadways. that's come christmas. they travel within 50 miles of their home. if you are headed to the pacific northwest, this is going to move a little bit further towards the east. but until then, will you have to deal with a number of rises along the rivers here, especially this river around oregon city. it could be at major flood stage going into monday morning. now, we have seen a considerable rises there, also, across the southeast in the united states, we are looking at atlanta into new orleans, heavy rainfall expected over the next couple of days. back to you, guys.

>> thank you very much, karen, appreciate it. a lot of other news to tell you about this morning. >> the next hour of your "new day" starts right now. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> good morning, everyone. >> it's 7:00 here on the east coast. we are starting with that breaking news for the first time. we are hearing from north korea about the cyber attack that shocked a movie studio that stunned the u.s., stunned the world and prompted president obama to say that dictators cannot tell the u.s. what to do. >> so that response from north korea coming this morning, it is stunning. the reclusive rocky nation is now accusing the united states of framing it. this is according to a state news agency with requoting here, america's childish investigation result and its attempt to frame us for this crime shows their hostile tendency towards us. >> a reference to hackers who promise another 9-11 if sony

released the equipment "the interview." they say we will not toll late the people who are willing to insult our supreme leader, but even when we retal aye, we will not conduct terror against innocent moviegoers. >> we are told more about what south criia korea is saying thi morning. it is quite surprising, really. >> reporter: they're known for their over the top ret tick i rick. it fits that line. the fact that they responded to the president so quickly, some pretty good speed for this regime. it's not usually this fast. so the first response came via their news website. their official website. then it came on tear evening news. you saw the news anchor in pink and basically what she read through was a lengthy statement responding to president obama and the fbi investigation, saying that they want to see the evidence, that they are quote

being framed and that they plan on retaliating again as you said not against the moviegoers, but against the org fators of the quote insults against our supreme leader and this i found quite curious. we heard before from the regime in other cases where they have been accused of lashing out against the united states or south korea. but they say they want a mutual investigation of what's been happening to sony. they want to work with america and i want to read one part of the statement saying, quote, if america refuses our proposal of mutual investigation continues to living us to this case and talk about actions and response, they, america, will be met with serious consequence, what those consequences are? north america likes to throw out the flowery language, the saber rattling language, but it's a little thin on details. >> real quick, i want to ask a follow-up question here, is this more bluster from north korea?

do you think they are trying to engej and up the an 'te here by responding so quickly as they did? >> it's ha ready to say. you know, you can watch this regime for years and years and there they're so unpredictable. you don't really know what they are thinking. other than they are the spoiled child of asia, they want a lot of attention, this is going to continue the attention that they so pray they are trying to keep it up, that they have in the last year or so, sort of fallen off the global map and recent months jumped up to the top with this latest hack. so certainly what they want to do, especially as people are starting to settle down and head into the christmas holiday, they want people to continue to pay attention to them. >> thank you so much. we appreciate i. i think it would be better if the administration decides to respond or sit back and ignore the regime and not give them the attention they are looking tore. >> or we will see the evidence that north korea is calling for.

sony is adding context to that decision to can sell the release of "the interview." okay, we heard president obama call the decision a mistake. >> i am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced and having said all that, yes, i think they made a mistake. >> we have not caved. we have not given in. we have persevered and we have not backed down. we have always had every desire to have the american public see this movie. >> i wish they had spoken to me first. i would have told them, do not get into a pattern in which you are intimidated by these kind of criminal attacks. >> we definitely spoke to senior adviser in the white house to talk about the situation. the fact is. did we talk to the president, himself, and talk to him about

what was transpireing as the theater started pulling back? but the white house was certainly aware of the situation. >> and now reports that the company, sony is going to try to get the movie seen somehow, in some way. so i want to bring in our senior media correspondent to talk about it. brian, you saw the comments there from michael nesbet he made. do you think he is making this change, this flip, if you will, out of embarrassment, out of a fear they are sessing a bad precedent? a lot of people came down on sony saying this was a bad, bad idea? >> you mean the bad idea to make this movie to begin with? sony, is certainly not regreting that about this plot about kim jong-un, instead of a fictional dictator, which was an option they had. i think we are hearing from sony a little defiance. earlier in the woke, they had no choice but to can sell the movie from its christmas day release. that's because all the major

theater owners in the united states said they weren't going to show the movie. so when we hear him say, we did not cave in. a lot of people rolled their eyes and say, obviously, you did cave in, sony, you cancelled the movie. really there was a more effective failure if you will. that was all the companies were worried americans wouldn't go to the movie theaters on christmas day because they were afraid of an attack. now we see a reversal. sony said, we still, it is our hope that anyone will see this movie will get the opportunity to do so. they are now in talks once again with distributors, trying to find a way to get it into some theaters or online, via netflix or youb youtube or something like that. >> do you think it's too late? the damage has been done? >> reporter: there is a chilling effect on freedom of expression in hollywood and media generally. i this i this movie will come out sooner rather than later.

netflix won't comment on its talks with sony right now. youb youtube has not gotten back with comment. there are a lot of other options as well. sony owns a couple different ways it could potentially eclipse the moi. i think they want it supported so they aren't alone in this fight. >> thank you for joining us this morning. the full interview with sony ceo will be aired tomorrow, 10:00 a.m. eastern right here on cnn. the obamas, they are in hawaii this morning the first family is taking a break from washington and soaking up the sun at a beach front home in honolulu. they'll be there about two weeks. >> it is the annual tradition for the family, it even started, of course, before the white house the president growing up in hawaii. it's usually a working holiday. we are sure le catch a couple rounds of golf as with el. >> before he headed out, there

was business to take care of in washington. including, how to respond to the cyber attack on sony by north korea. give us some clarity, erin, about what the president had to say? >> reporter: well, as you know the president has been dealing with foreign hoyles headaches throughout the year, but now with the fbi directly blaming north korea for the hacking, president obama has yet another major international issue where he can leave a mark that he wasn't expecting at all. >> we take them with the outmost seriousness. >> reporter: condemn whack he called a sieber assault from north korea, in his year end press conference, president obama called out sony pictures for pulling the movie "the interview" fol threats to theaters. >> sony is a corporation. you know, it suffered significant damage. there were threats against its

ploy i don't see. i am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced. having said all that, yes, i think they made a mistake. >> reporter: he insisted american citizens and businesses cannot be bullied no a pattern of scenceorship and promised retaliation against north korea. >> they caused a lot of damage and we will respond. we will respond proportionally and we will respond in a place and time and manner that we choose. >> reporter: he also defended his most recent sweeping initiative. this week's surprise move to normalize relations with cuba. >> what i know deep in my bones is that if you have done the same thing for 50 years and nothing's changed, you should try something different if you want a different outcome. >> reporter: the administration hopes its action by hoping to

bring more business to the western communist nation will open it up. >> it offers the prospect of telecommunications and the internet being more widely available in ways that it hasn't been before. and over time, thatsh chips awa at this hermetically sealed society. >> reporter: after a friendzied year end he's got his game face on for the last two years to come. >> my game is entering the fourth quarter. interesting things happen in the fourth quarter, i'm looking forward to it. usually in the fourth quarter you get a time out. i am looking to a quiet timeout, christmas with my family. >> and president obama said he is going to take this time to recharge so he is ready to work with republicans when he comes back in january. >> all right, thank you. a new shocker this morning in the shooting death of

ferguson teenager michael brown. in his first extensive interview since the grand jury cleared officer darren wilson last month in brown's death the d. a. says some of the witnesses obviously lied under oath, but he let them testify anyway. st. louis officer robert mccullough said during a radio interview yet that he had no regrets about letting the grand jury hear from non-credible witnesses. mccullough says those witnesses will not face perjury charges. >> there were people who came in and, yes, absolutely lied under oath. some lied to the fbi, even though they're not under oath, that's another potential offense, a federal offense, but i thought it was much more important to present the entire pick and say, listen, this is what this witness says he saw, even though there was a building between where the witness says he was and the events occurred. so they couldn't have seen that, or the physical evidence didn't

support what the witness is saying. it was on. it went both directions. i thought it was much more important the grand jury hear everything, what the people have to say. they're in a perfect position to assess the kreshlths which is what jurors do. >> mccullough says he had no regrets. the late night announcement of the grand jury decision trigingerred violence and protests in the streets of ferguson and sparked nationwide peaceful demonstrations. >> we spoke about it moments ago, this u.s. relations with cuba, president obama kind of reopening relations with that country. how will this new overseas relationship impact us? we'll talk about it. olympic swimmer michael phelps is not going to jail for jumping driving. we will tell you what the judge told him. t my life. but that hasn't stopped me from modeling.

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xeljanz can reduce ra pain and help stop further joint damage, even without methotrexate. ask about xeljanz. peaceful demonstrations. driving. . >> the last news conference of the year, the president gave congress a specific request for 2015, lift the u.s. embargo on cuba. the request caps a landmark week if which the president opened up

diplomatic relations with the island nation. it is one of the last remaining vestiges of the cold war. we will talk about this with cnn contributor who is also an ad advisor to the president on latin-american issues. dan, republicans told congress that's coming into power if january, it does not look like from what we've heard from those republican lawmakers that an embargo would be lifted. do you see that as something that's likely to even happen? i think it's unlikely to happen in this coming conference. the president says he believes it should be lifted. he didn't hold out a whole lot of hope this was going to be high on congress's list. although, there are divisions within the republican party on this, the loudest voices are those who oppose what the president did the past week as well as going any further than that. i think at the end of the day, inertia on lifting the core of the embargo will carry the day,

at least for the pursuit of the future. >> what's the impact moving here as we move ahead to 2015? the president says he's in his fourth quarter interesting things happen. looking into the run for the white house in 2016, what should we expect and what are we hearing from some of the potential candidates? >> we are hearing different things from potential candidates. on the democratic side, former secretary of state clinton was supportive of what the president did. she had been out on this position for a while on the republican side, marco rubio forcefully has come out against what the president has done, saying he will fight what the president has done with the last core of his sole. so it's a bit of a mixed bag on the republican side with rand paul. this is reflective of where you find the cuban-american community. there is a different generation, polling is starting to come out

shows the community pretty much 50-50 split on whether they support or oppose what the president did overall. but the generational change is stark. folks over 65 are advisor posed to what the president did and younger folks within the cuban-american community. cuban americans are supportive of what the president did. so i think it's a bit of a wash within electoral politics going forward. >> dan, speak to that. i think you bring up a good point here. you talk about the generational divide. how does that help or hurt when it comes to the democrats and who and republicans who are both competing over the hispanic population in that particularly important voting block if 2016? >> this is particularly important for cuban americans. it doesn't have a whole lot of impact on other hispanics. this is equally important in florida. the interesting thing over the last election cycles in florida, is the cuban-american vote has been migrating towards

democrats. president obama in 2012 was the first democrat to win the cuban-american vote. the first presidential election before president kennedy, really, a sense existed in the united states. charlie chryst just one in florida, losing the gubernatorial race despliefting the embargo an entertaining the idea of going to cuba during the campaign. the cuban-american vote has changed. the folks who are most against change in cuba policy are folks who, you know, there is no delicate way of saying this, 10,000 of them are dying every week in florida. folks over the age of 65, whereas the younger cohorts among cuban americans, larl in florida, are very supportive. they have a different relationship with the island. they have either they came much more recently or they were born here and this is kind of the cash flow thing is something they inherited from their parents.

they see it hasn't worked. u.s. policy over the years hadn't worked and they're willing to entertain a different approach. i think the president was speaking to that cohort and that future in making the decisions that he announced this week. >> that makes it difficult for republicans to speak in one unifying voice after mitt romney earned a fewer percentage of the hispanic vote than john mccain did less than george bush did. so especially the younger vote as well as we talk about that grouping in florida. thank you so much. >> thank you. . >> if you are hitting the road this weekend for the holidays, you should beware, there is some winter rough weather headed your way. it could mean major delays. the highest court clears the lands for another state to begin allowing same-sex marriages. i've smoked a lot and quit a lot, but ended up nowhere. now...i use this.

welcome back. "new day" is a busy day of news. here is your morning read. >> 23 minutes after the hour. olympic champion michael phelps will not spend time in jail after being arrested for drunk driving, but the judge warned him another slip up could put him in the detention center and to refrain from alcohol and to undergo mandatory screening.

a woman has been arrested in the deaths of eight of her own children. some of the victims were believed to be stabbed. the 37-year-old suspect is now under police guard at a hospital. the u.s. supreme court has cleared the way for same-sex marriages in florida. it turned down a request to block same-sex marriages while the state appeals the judge's order that the ban is unconstitutional. same sex couples can begin to marry on january 6th. in sports the college football bowl season is kicking off today. in a few hours. teams are also taking the field in the new mexico bowl and las vegas bowl and famous idaho potato bowl and finally the camellia bowl. heavy rain is pushing into the south. meanwhile, people in the northeast could see up to three inches of snow by tomorrow. it doesn't lock much better

moving into christmas week, storm systems are expected to hit the great lakes and the southeast. the u.s. is fighting an air war against isis in iraq and afghanistan, will it be dragged into another war in pakistan neighborhood, plus, no regrets, st. louis prosecutor robert mccullough is finally speaking out about the controversial decision not to indict ferguson police officer darren wilson. up next, why he says he let witnesses he knew were lying testify in front of the grand jury. ♪

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approaching the bottom of the hour now. there are stunning new claims this morning by north korea. >> the rogue nation says it is being framed by the u.s. as a culprit in the cyber attack at sony pictures. according to state run news agency, pyongyang says whoever is going to frame our country for a crime should present concrete evidence...if america refuses our proposal of mutual

investigations, continues to link us to this case and talk about our actions in response, they will be met with serious consequences. >> all this is coming as the ceo of sony pictures fired back at president obama for saying sony should not have cancelled the release in theaters. >> the president says sony made a mistake in pulling the film. did you make a mistake? >> no, i think actually the unfortunate part is in this instance the president, the press and the public are mistaken as to what actually happened. we do not own movie theaters. we cannot determine whether or not a movie will be played in movie thigh territories. so to sort of rehearse for moment the sequence of events, we experienced the worst cyber attack in american history and persevered for three-and-a-half weeks under enormous stress and

enormous difficulty and all with the effort of trying to keep our business up and running and get this movie out into the public. when it came to the crucial moment when a threat came out from what was called the gop at the time, threatening audiences who would two to the movie theaters, the movie theaters came to us one by one over the course of a very short period of time, we were completely surprised by it and announced they would not carry the movie. at that point in time, we had no alternative but to not proceed with a theatric release on the 25th of september. >> that's all we did. >> we have not caved. we have not given in. we have persevered. we have not backed down. we have always had every desire to have the american public see

this movie. >> all right. you can see more of mike at litton's interview 10:00 a.m. eastern sunday right here on cnn. now to pakistan, pakistani security forces say they have killed at least five taliban insurgents, including a key commander in and around peshawar, this comes as thousands come out to protest the deadly taliban attacks on an army school that killed 145 people, 132 of them children. so will u.s. forces now be drawn more deeply into aiding islamabad and fighting the pakistani taliban. with ewant to bring if josh ro gen -- we want to bring in josh rogan. when you see something like that, a terrorist organization, a group like that can kill 132 children. where are we in this?

does it not force the united states to drawing much more closely working with pakistan against the taliban in that country? >> right, when it comes to pakistan, every time you try pull out, they pull you back in. president obama has been trying to extricate the u.s. from wars in afghanistan and pakistan. but what we know now is that this battle between the pakistan military and the pakistani taliban will only get worse. it's going to escalate in pakistan, it's demanding and asking for u.s. assistance, that can come in a number of forms. it can be intelligence, money, weapons, drone strikes on the taliban leaders, which is one of the best ways of getting at them. the u.s. will definitely feel compelled to assist. there is a debate inside the obama administration as to whether the pakistani is a threat to the united states or a threat to pakistan. either way, there is no way we can refuse the help. just as america was trying to ramp down the president's vote

in pakistan, this new conflict shows we are going to be in it for a while and possibly our involvement will be increasing. >> josh, what do you think of the fact that pakistan as a player with the united states, covering the administration, problem had a hard time, there was a difficult relationship with pakistan, one that he can trust the leadership if that country. i assume, i imagine president obama will have the same issue. >> it's exactly right. look now har we have come since 9-11, there was an effort in the bush administration and obama administration to reshape the u.s. relations from pakistan, we were going to give them all of this aid, give them billions and billions and billions of military assistance. the idea was to turn the u.s.-pakistan relationship into something special. that's failed. the pakistan military has been playing both sides of the coin, on the one hand, fighting the pakistani taliban and assisting the u.s. taliban.

the u.s. is fed up with that. no longer are we talking about a new strategic relationship with pakistan, no longer are we talking about a pakistan that loves the united states. now it's about killing terrorists. that's the mission now. >> let's talk about what this means for afghanistan the mount says he's going to keep nearly 10,000 troops there next year, he will cut that number in half by 2016, complete withdrawal by 2017 so if you got more engagements, with the taliban and pakistan, does that spill over? does that have an impact on what we do in afghanistan? >> i think it cuts both ways. the less troops we have in afghanistan the less we need pakistan, remember, we need it to transit goods back and forth to pakistan. we need it to stop interfering in pakistan. that's what the pakistanis do, they sponsor them to give themselves strategic depth inside pakistan. that becomes less important. at the same the less troops we have there the less influence we have there. that means we have to resort to

other things. that means we have to support the pakistanis and the afghan government, quite frankly with money, drones, intelligence so this is a shift in the way the united states operates in that region. it's less about troops. it's less about nation building. it's more about supporting those domestic forces as their fight against domestic terrorists goes on. >> josh, thank you so much for your time this morning. >> any time. it's been close to a month since the grand jury decided not to indict embattled officer darren wilson over the shooting death of michael brown. now the d. a. who prosecuted the case, he is speaking out. ♪

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grand jury but will not face perjury charges. listen. >> there were people who came in, yes, absolutely lied under oath. some lied to the fbi. even though they're not under oh, that's another potential offense, a federal offense, but i thought it was much more fortunate present the entire pick and say, this is what this witness says he saw. even though there was a building between where the witness says he was and where the events occurred. so they couldn't catch him. or the physical evidence didn't support what the witness is saying. and it was armed. it went both directions. i thought it was much more important that the going hear everything what the people have to say. and they're in a perfect position to assess the credibility, with i is what jurors do. >> so we got cnn legal analyst paul cowan with us. paul, manying cull la says he invited people to testify before the grand jury who were lying and he few that what they were saying was untrue. is that typical?

>> i wouldn't say it's typical, but, you know, there are a lot of misconceptions about this grand jury stuff because grand juries are secret. every county in america. there are thousands of counties have grand juries. they're all operated slightly differently and the federal system has grand juries, they operate their grand juries one way as opposed to other systems. if basically, victor, i think you have three kind of situations with the grand jury. i presented cases myself as a prosecutor. one is were you looking to get an documents? in that kind of a case the prosecutor goes in with a few witnesses to make out a bare bones case and gets an ziemt. he doesn't put too much on record. he wants to save that for trial. it's a clear cut dismissal. it's the same thing. you kind of do a bare bones presentation, slanting the evidence towards a dismissal. this falls into the third category, which is an investigative grand jury and the

prosecutor is kind of putting his hands unin the air saying i will leave this up to the grand jury. they have a right to hear fempg they want to. is it unusual? yes, it is. not unprecedented. i will tell you for instance in manhattan virtually all cop shootings are investigated this way. even witnesses they think are probably not telling the truth. then they allow, you know, cross examination in the grand jury by the grand juries and the da of the witnesses who are not being truthful. so it's unusual. but it does happen in some grand juries in america. >> mccullough goes a step further saying those who lie to the grand jury will not face perjury charges. should they? >> well, that itself a close question. i think he is being pragmatic about the situation. remember there are over 60 witnesses that testified in the

grvenlth a lot of them were called lies. a woman who is obviously racist. gave a version favorable to the roefrs officer, which is a lie. on the other hand, there were witnesses favorable to the brown's version who said mr. brown had been shot in the back. which he wasn't, according to autopsy and other people who couldn't even see the scene and later said that somebody had told them what happened so if he started prosecuting everybody who told a lie in front of that grrnlgs i don't think they'd be prosecuting crimes in st. louis next year. it's rare this would be done. could it be done? it absolutely could be done. he has a right as a prosecutor to proceed against anybody who lied under oath. if he indicts one, he has to indict them all. i don't think he will do that. >> one other element i think a lot of people were confused about is the timing of the

announcement. mccullough offers clarity. he said there was no good time to announce this, whatever was going to happen was going to happen. we into you that very early on. i did work closely with law enforcement. what is your response to that? this was announced at 18:00 or 9:00 p.m., when they knew the most instructive protests and demonstrations were at night? >> you know, it's really, i think the way it went down is absolutely terrible. it's very easy if retrospect to say it was a foolish decision, a decision that cost a lot of property and injury in st. louis. on the other hand, if he had announced it during the day and there were kids out on the street and maybe the schools were opened or the churches were opened, there would have been another round of criticism against him. it seems to me whenever this was going to be announced, there was going to be trouble in the streets. i'm not so sure it's fair to

criticize him. also, he was working with coordination with the governor and the national guard and everything else. i'm not too quick to jump on him for that. >> paul, thank you so much. there are so many people had questions about why the governor issued this state of emergency, so many days before the announcement. then the night of the announcement, where was the national guard? >> it didn't make a lot of sense. he is trying to explain himself at this point. president obama, he is easing travel restrictions to cuba. before you start packing your bags and calling up your travel agent, there are probably a few things you need to know. s lastss but aleve can last 12 hours.

president raul castro is expected to speak in a few hours. he will address the national assembly. president obama said castro did a lot of talking this week. the leaders agreed to open diplomatic relations after 50 years of estrangement. do we know what president castro will say? >> reporter: you know, right now, it's unclear exactly how much he would be expanding on those u.s.-cuban relations. of course, that's what everybody wants to know right now. i'm standing in havana right

now, take a look at the beautiful horizon behind me, just 90 miles from where i'm standing. it's fascinating they are so close together geographically. i have been out in the streets of havana talking to lots of cuban, overall, there is euphoria between the u.s. and cuba. now they're a little measured. first of all, why are people so excited? this could mean more remittances, more money flowing in from the united states to family members here in cuba. they are very excited about that, that helps them make ends meet. visitors, americans coming into cuba. it means more tourists buying trink ets and mementos, tipping people. we know americans are very good

tippers. >> that also means possibly bring figure building materials, strengthening the communication system, which is very weak here in cuba. and so that has people ecstatic on the streets. here are what some of them had to say. >> we think we are very happy. >> asking, so who thinks it is a good idea for the u.s. and cuba to establish relations? >> for my people, many, many, we need it for survivor. >> now, cuba is measuring their enthusiasm, first of all, this is a very controversial issue in the united states especially in congress, where they're keeping a close eye about the news

coming out of the united states, now, they are hoping he can expand more on the details, how this would impact their daily life. victor, we don't know that right now, but that's what people are hoping to >> we'll see how he expands upon he said a couple days ago. rosa, thank you so much. >> cuban beaches, cigars, may not be much longer before you can enjoy both. right now travel only allowed under 12 categories including family, religious, humanitarian and educational. tourist travel to the nation 90 miles remains banned. only changed by congress. so what will the loosened restrictions mean? mark murphy the author of "travel uncrypted" live in new york. thanks for joining us this

morning. you know, a lot of people are very curious, they want to go. how soon could they see the beach and maybe take in a cigar? >> not any time soon. it's really an elitist destination, it's so expensive. it could cost as much as $4,000 to go. it's the people to people program. that's the way you get there. plenty of tour operators offer it so you can go, and if you do it legally, there are still those restrictions in place in terms of spending money and doing things like that though that's going to ease up going forward. >> so i love the beach. i love the sun. not cigars so much. but what would be the possibilities, if we looked out over the horizon and we talking about cruises, are we talking about the possibility of even booking online at some point? >> well, this is a great destination, unknown by americans for more than 50

years. they want to go and it has intrigue. it's going to bring an influx. a lot of people have done cruises, this will get more people going back to explore cuba. it's not going to happen soon because there's a host of issues, first they have to go through congress, will congress let this go? i don't know right now. so it's going to be a bit of a battle. i think it's a good step in the right direction. eventually cruise lines will build piers, there will be infrastruck a tur that has to happen. i don't think they could handle it right now. >> we know the branch of the state department overseeing changes expect to issue a roo vised rules in the coming weeks. what do we expect is going to come out of that department? what will they say? >> i think you'll find that the licensing that you have to do and it takes time, three to four months, it's not a spur of the moment destination, unless you go illegally. but that's illegal. you're not allowed to do that.

if you go through the proper channels through the proper tour operators you have to get licensed. that i think is going to be eased. that's what they are talking about. it's going to be much easier in terms of the process. then if you can do it, once we start opening up the flood gates if you would more will be able to go. >> and then we anticipate probably cheaper as well. >> it's going to be more expensive out of the gate because it's going to create demand and therefore you know, supply won't grow, prices are going to go way up if they open this up. and it's going to damage our neighbors in the north who see cuba as a great valdesty nation. >> good to know. mark, thank you. appreciate it. we'll see. a little while before we get over there. justin bieber, got a lump of coal in his stocking courtesy of an instagram purge. >> he lost millions of on line followers. we'll tell you why. ♪

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suing the bob evans chain saying meat loaf their parents ate killed the couple. listen to this. the children of virginia and harold say their parents became violently ill after eating the meal and died a few months later. this happened in 2012. bob evans says the suit is entirely without merit. >> two, terror on a georgia freeway after a fedex truck slams into a police car. you can see an officer getting out of his vehicle to make a routine traffic stop, when he returns to the car, a fedex trailer barrels into his vehicle. this according to wgcl, teams had to use the jaws of life to pull the driver from the truck after it overturned. officials say the driver failed to stay in his lane. there is no word yet on his condition. the police officer was not seriously injured. >> three, a woman in california will be spending christmas in jail after being arrested for allegedly stealing christmas

presents from neighborhood doorsteps, and it's the second time she's been caught, police say. martha lampley was on bail when they caught her swiping presents again. the first time around police discovered that a vault had been created full of all of this. clothes and jewelry, the jews. >> unbelievable. number four, justin bieber's popularity waning on instagram. the site says it deleted millions of spam accounts in what many are calling the instagram rapture. oh, yes. bieber lost about 3.5 million followers, about 15% of his follower base. >> number five, super saturday. known as the last saturday before christmas, one retail watcher estimates $10 billion will spent today alone. stores will be open nearly nonstop until christmas.

amazon and best buy, stretching out dates for guaranteed delivery by christmas. for folks who haven't start thard shopping. >> that might be me. i'll get it done. >> i wasn't going to name anybody. >> you named it last hour. >> hey, stay with us. >> you might not get a gift. >> we've got a busy morning of news. >> the next hour of your "new day" starts now. >> there were threats against its employees, so i think they made a mistake. >> the president, the press and the public. >> a surprise statement from north korea as president obama puts the rogue nation on notice there will be a response after hackers bring down the sony network and force the cancellation of the upcoming movie "the interview." >> it's a new look, ray rice and

his then fiance moments after that now infamous attack in an elevator of an atlantic city casino as they are in handcuffs. >> and travel headaches, crowded airports, packed roads, this weekend, the last weekend before christmas is going to be trouble. now a new warning. be on the lookout for terror. your "new day" starts now. >> good morning. i'm suzanne malveaux in for christi paul. >> i'm victor blackwell. breaking news this morning for the first time we're hearing from north korea that prompted president obama to say dictators better not tell the u.s. americans, u.s. and american citizens, rather, what to do. >> that response from north korea coming in this morning, it's stunning a lot of people. the rogue nation is accusing the united states of framing it in the cyber attack on sony

pictures. in the warning of serious consequences but it's also proposing both countries work together to investigate the attack that forced sony pictures to yank the christmas day release of the film "the interview." >> according to north kree yas news agency, whoever is going to frame our country for crime should present concrete evidence, comparing this to past cyber attacks that have nothing to do with us is based on abstract and unrealistic claims which will not convince anybody. america's childish investigation result and its attempt to frame us for this crime shows their hostile tendency toward us. >> in a reference to hackers who promise another 9/11 if sony released the film, it goes on to say if america refuses our proposal of mutual investigation continues to link us to this case and talk about actions in response, they, america, will be met with serious consequences.

of course all of this is coming as sony is getting a public scolding from president obama for not releasing the film "the interview" which basically is is a tifrizes kim jong-un. sony is firing back saying it had no choice. we're covering this from all angles. we bring in our media consultant out of new york and so let's start with you. what do we know more about what north korea is saying and what's behind this? do they have anything to back it up, any teeth? >> reporter: they rarely have anything to back up these fiery statements. this is in line in lock step with what we've seen before from north korea. this one coming very quickly after the president's year-end news conference. this one take s all of the liberties and but there are a few things that are interesting

about it. is how determined they are to an earnest they are to try to let america know that they honestly feel they are be, quote, framed, that they are asking the president to show them the evidence, that they want to prove that they are not part of this and want to work as a mutual team in a mutual investigation with the united states. which is of course ridiculous since the united states and north korea have no relations whatsoever diplomatically. interesting as well. this line, if i could read. >> no, please go ahead. we wonder what joint investigation could they be envisioning. >> reporter: this joint investigation is simply illogical. ridiculous. it's not anything that would ever happen. everyone in washington is saying come on, this is another north korean statement. but they are responding and they are taking it seriously. they are not quite as insulting as i've heard in the past, but they certainly want the

president to hear and they want attention. the reason why these statements come out so quickly they want washington to hear them, they crave that attention. and if i could read one part of this statement. i found this particularly interesting because it's directed directly to the american people. it says we will not conduct terror against innocent moviegoer. the retaliation -- as far as the retaliation, we will target the ones who are responsible and the originators of the insult, obviously the moviemakers, perhaps sony pictures. so they are directly talking to the american people saying we're not going that way, but we are certainly still angry about this movie. >> brian, i want to bring you in to talk about that. because first of all, i imagine you know, maybe sony will have some sort of response to the north korean response that maybe they go after them. what are they saying in terms of releasing this movie after all, that there might be a plan that we might all get to see this thing.

>> reporter: you think a movie studio thought it would find itself having to respond to north korea's dictator? what a strange situation this continues to be. but i do think we're going to see this movie. there are active discussions going on this weekend between sony and potential distributors, maybe that's in theaters, maybe more likely online. imagine if everybody in across the country and other countries could watch the interview on netflix or on youtube or watch on amazon. it would be a rallying moment for freedom of expression and freedom from fever. they are looking for partners to do it. >> and probably correct the precedent that might have set for other hackers who might decide we're going after the government, after companies, things like that. do you think they will respond to north korea today regarding their -- looks like sounds like another threat that they are going to go after, they are not going to threaten somebody else but certainly the people who made the movie. >> reporter: i think they will probably avoid it. here's why. they received a message from the

hackers on thursday night and decided not to comment on that message. that message basically said sony, you did the right thing by not releasing the movie. now never release it ever again and we will stop leaking your data. they didn't want to comment directly on that. instead they said we still want this movie to be seen. i think this is all about the word you used, precedent. this is about precedent for the future. president obama said it well, he said this is also concern about self censorship in the future. we can't worry about offending the sense builts of somebody, even the president worrying how this could have a chilling effect in the future, if this ends with the interview never being seen. >> brian, thank you. >> what a strange situation. people probably weren't going to see. >> it's bizarre. it brings up a host of issues and also educating us on the issue of cyber security and the holes and the things we need to address. thank you so much as well. the president himself is looking

at this. there has to be a proportional response. i mean, this is not going to go away. >> what will that be? you talked about this precedent. let's talk about what the president said, that sony said a dangerous precedent by not releasing the film "the interview." the ceo is defending the studio's decision. michael lynton spoke. listen. >> the president says sony made a mistake in pulling the film. did you make a mistake? >> no. i -- i think actually, the unfortunate part is in this instance the president, the press, and the public are mistaken as to what actually happened. we do not own the movie theaters. we cannot determine whether or not a movie will be played in movie theaters. so, to sort of rehearse for a moment the sequence of events. we experienced the worst cyber

attack in american history. and persevered for 3 1/2 wek weeks under enormous distress and difficulty, and all with the effort of trying to keep our business up and running, and get this movie out into the public. when it came to the crucial moment when a threat came out from what was called the gop at the time, threatening audiences who would go to the movie theaters t movie theaters came to us, one by one, over the course of a very short period of time, we were completely surprised by it, and announced that they would not carry the movie. at that point in time, we had no alternative but to not proceed with the theatric release on the 25th of december. that's all we did. >> so you have not caved. >> we have not caved. we have not given in. we have percent veered and we have not backed down.

we have always had every desire to have the american public see this movie. >> michael linten has a lot more to say. watch the full interview when it airs tomorrow on fareed zakaria gps tomorrow right here on cnn. >> alarming warning from the state department this morning, if the you are traveling during the holiday season the state department is now advising americans to be extra cautious after a gunman in sydney took 17 people hostage. now, this alert says that u.s. citizens should be extra cautious, maintain a very high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to enhance their personal security. this travel alert expires on march 19th of next year. >> still to come, to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. that's the oath a witness swears before testifying in court. but a grand jury investigating the michael brown shooting may not have heard the truth. that's ahead. >> and hackers who took on stony

and won, well, the interview, it has been shelved. since this tactic worked could we see future attacks? we're going to ask our next guest that question after the break. ♪ ♪ my baby drove up in a brand new cadillac ♪ ♪ ♪ my baby drove up in a brand new cadillac ♪ ♪ ♪ look here daddy, i'm never coming back ♪

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welcome back to "new day." a lot to tell you about today. here's your morning read. >> 13 minutes after the hour. new shocker in this morning in the shooting death of ferguson teenager michael brown. in his first extensive interview since the grand jury cleared former officer darren wilson in brown's death, the d.a. who prosecuted the case says some of the witnesses obviously lied under oath but he let them testify anyway. >> i thought it was much more important that the grand jury hear everything what people had to say and they are in a perfect position to assess credibility which is what jurors do. >> robert mcculloch says witness who is lied will not face perjury charges. there is a have showing the moments after ray rice punched his now wife. this video obtained by abc news you see rice trying to talk, while she cries while being

treated by security guard. they are later seen kissing before being escorted into separate police cars. >> and $50 million, that's the amount of the settlement over the deadly stage collapse at the indiana state fair back in 2011. you may recall that story. this incident occurred after strong winds slammed into the stage just before the country music group sugarland was set to perform. seven people died. >> in the wake of the sony cyber attack president obama says the u.s. needs to beef up its cyber security defenses. >> the fbi is pinning blame for the attack on north korea which is insisting this morning that it is being framed. president obama says make no mistake the u.s. is going to respond. >> they caused a lot of damage, and we will respond. we will respond proportionally and we'll respond in a place and time and manner that we choose.

>> let's bring in charles armstrong, a professor of korean studies at columbia university, also joining us peter singer the co-author of cyber security and cyber war, what everyone needs to know. >> so president obama says that the u.s. is going to respond. what can the united states really do to punish north korea? i want you to listen to what the president said about the decision to cancel the release of the film "the interview." >> sony's a corporation, it suffered significant damage. there were threats against some employees. i am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced. having said all that, yes, i think they made a mistake. >> so, in light of that, peter, let's start with you. what are the options the united states has in dealing with north

korea at this point? >> i think in many ways you hit it right. it's not so much a cyber problem now as a north korea problem. they have been poor actor, bad behavior in everything from nuclear proliferation to regional instability to now this hack which let's be clear wasn't an act of war, there has been a lot of rhetoric out there. we've been hitting them for these other real actions that we've been hitting them with financial sanctions, trying to isolate them. in terms of on the cyber side we can go after this unit that is believed to have been behind it try and make their operations more difficult, we can also go after some of the black market places where they have been getting their tools. and positive effect of that it's not just them but other cyber criminals getting tools from the same places. in many ways it's really about how do you shape the activities of north korea as a whole as opposed to thinking of this as a cyber security issue now and

that's really because of how sony and the movie theaters caved in. that turned it from being a simple hack into a national security and freedom of speech concern. >> professor armstrong, the south korean government says this north korean agency bureau 121 is responsible for several cyber attacks. tell us about bureau 121. >> yes. it's also known as unit 121. it is part of the general bureau of reconnaissance, the int intelligence unit of the north korean security apparatus established in the 1990s, focused on cyber attacks and cyber security. there are about 2 or 3,000 people and they seem to operate not just in north korea but possibly out of china. there is a china element which is important if we're going to do anything to address this. we have to get if possible chinese support to crack down on this. >> peter, the fbi now is saying that the hackers routed their

hacking attack on servers routed through asia, europe, even the united states, so how difficult does this actually make it to go after them when it's so widespread? >> well, you're talking about both the way they routed the attack, but also where the physical location of the people are. and as the other guest hit it well, most are located in north korea, there are reports of other physically located in china as well as a few maybe in japan. the key, though here, is not so much the atry bugs process, who did it but accountability. what are you going to do to them and try and shape the issue now is not just punishing or trying to deter them but other future actors out there that range from you know, hackers who are angry about any other movie or other sort of corporate activity. so again, there's a limited set of tools, some will be law enforcement, some will be

diplomatic. maybe intelligence activities on overt reporting but also on the covert side. there's not a lot of good tools. that's why the keys not just what you're doing to them but how you're going to respond on the home front so that this doesn't become a precedent for every other company that's under attack that it just folds in this way. that's the dangerous part of what's played out in the last week. >> profess e let's listen to something that senator john mccain said about this attack. >> i think it should be a wake-up call, should be a wake-up call that a country like north korea has this kind of capability, imagine the capability they have to disrupt other aspects of american life. so it's time we as congress, frankly time the congress got together with the administration and passed legislation on this whole issue of cyber security. and we have not. >> so, the senator says that this should be a wake-up call. has the u.s. government,

congress, has industry in the u.s. been asleep here in relation to the attacks that could come from the rest of the world? >> well, certainly when it comes to north korea there have been other issues as peter singer said. the nuclear issue and human rights, but in terms of north korea's threat to american interests i think we have to pay attention to the fact that north koreans put a lot of resources into cyber attacks, they have been blamed for some major attacks on south korea, last year they shut down quite a number of banks and they entered into the south korean media companies. so clearly north korea has the capability to do these things. i think taking them seriously enough and in general there needs to be a lot more attention paid to protecting american interests from cyber threats. >> peter singer, professor armstrong, thank you both. >> still to come, a blood

alcohol nearly twice legal limit, video evidence of michael phelps weaving in and out of traffic. still the olympic swimmer won't see the inside after jail cell. why is not we're going to ask that next. alright, so this tylenol arthritis lasts 8 hours

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from olympic podiums to supervised probation, swimmer michael phelps has pleaded

guilty dui. a camera caught phelps here making seriously risky maneuver just missing a semi. our baltimore aphilia reports that phelps was pulled over september 30 after going 84 in a 45-mile-an-hour zone. >> the judge gave the olympic medalist a one-year suspended sentence and 18 months under supervised probation. phelps spoke to reporters about the incidents. >> the last three months of my life have been some of the hardest times i've gone through. some of the biggest learning experiences that i've ever had. >> let's go now to cnn legal analyst paul callan. there is phelps' second dui in 10 years according to wbal. no jail time. his attorney says he was not given special treatment. what do you think? >> well, i was looking into it,

victor, he probably wasn't given special treatment. one of the things i think probably was a lucky thing for him is that maryland and baltimore in particular is one of the most violent cities in america. fifth highest murder rate, on all of the top ten lists for violent cities. in places like that prosecutors are focusing their attention on violent crime and i think the dui stuff tends to get more of a slap on the wrist than it might in other places. number one. secondly, his sentence is actually a pretty standard sentence in baltimore for this kind of offense. the prior offense, by the way, was for impaired driving, it was 10 years ago. and he got something called probation in lieu of judgment which means essentially if you stay out of trouble, the original offense got dismissed. so he was kind of viewed as a first offender, i think, on this arrest. he got a pretty standard

sentence. >> let's turn to ray rice now. the now former baltimore ravens player seen on camera knocking his then fiance now wife out cold in an elevator. the new video shows the couple right after the incident, this was from abc news from an open records request. it shows janay even kissing him. what role does this or could this have played in the deal reached with prosecutors? >> well, i think it plays a role but you know, this is classic in domestic abuse cases. i will tell you that 25, 30 years ago, it was standard. the husband would get arrested for beating the wife up. and then you know, when it got to court the next morning, when guy sobered up the wife there saying please drop the charges. the two go home and the wife gets kill ordinary maimed so. through the years, the system has sort of changed its attitude on this. just because the girlfriend or the wife is remorseful about having brought charges if she did bring charges and my recollection here is that she

wasn't heard -- wasn't her decision to bring the charges in the first place. prosecutors now look at these differently, generally. they are a little tougher on it. and but certainly if she wants to drop the charges it's something they have to take into consideration. >> all right. that story continues. paul callan, thank you. >> thank you, victor. still to come, sony, cuba, the bailout of the u.s. auto industry, the president laying out all of it on the table. but it was his final news conference of the year. erin mcpike live at the white house about all of this. the president is promising that the u.s. will respond to north korea at a time he chooses, more on that after the break. my name's louis,

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tylenolpm relieves pain and helps you fall fast asleep and stay asleep. we give you a better night. you're a better you all day. tylenol® bottom of the hour. the obamas waking up in hawaii today. the first family taking a break from washington, soaking up the sun and at a beachfront home in honolulu. they will be there about two weeks. >> before the president headed out there was business of course to take care of in washington including how to respond to the cyber attack on sony by north korea and defending his own new policy on cuba. erin mcpike is at the white house. what's the headline? >> reporter: as you know, as we've been discussing all year, the president has had a number of foreign policy headaches and major national security crises to deal with throughout this year. with this latest north korea

hacking and the fbi directly placing blame on north korea the president has another major international issue where he can leave a mark he wasn't expecting at all. >> we take them with the utmost seriousness. >> condemning what he called a cyber assault from north korea. president obama called out sony pictures for pulling the movie "the interview" following threats to theaters. >> sony's a corporation, it suffered significant damage. there were threats against its employees. i am sympathetic to the concerns that they faced. having said all that, yes, i think they made a mistake. >> reporter: he insisted american citizens and businesses cannot be bullied into a pattern of censorship and promised retaliation against north korea. >> they caused a lot of damage,

and we will respond. we will respond proportionally and respond in a place and time and manner that we choose. >> he also defended his most recent sweeping initiative, this week's surprise move to normalize relations with cuba. >> what i know deep in my bones is that if you've done the same thing for 50 years and nothing's changed, you should try something different if you want a different outcome. >> reporter: the administration hopes its actions helping to bring more western business to the communist nation will open it up. >> it offers a prospect of telecommunications, and the internet being more widely available in cuba in ways that it wasn't been before. and over time that chips away at this sealed society. >> reporter: after a frenzied year's end he's got his game face on for the last two years

to come. >> my presidency is entering the fourth quarter. interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter. and i'm looking forward to it. but going into the fourth quarter you usually get a time out. i'm now looking forward to a quiet time out, christmas with my family. >> reporter: we learned last night that the white house is considering economic and banking sanctions on north korea, but not naming north korea as a sponsor of terrorism. >> erin, thank you so much. erin mcpike at the white house. the president hit on a host of hot topics and we want to dig in further and see what this really means for especially for the new year with our political panel. >> let's bring in maria and ben ferguson and host of the ben ferguson show. ben, start with you. let's start listening to what the president had to say about

cuba. >> i wouldn't be surprised if they take at any given time actions that we think are a problem. and we will be in a position to respond to whatever actions they take, the same way we do with a range of countries around the world when they do things we think are wrong. but the point is that we will be in a better position, i think, to actually have some influence. and there may be carrots as well as sticks that we can then apply. >> so carrots and sticks. some call that progress. what kind of carrots and sticks? is this the right way to handle cuba? ben? >> look, i think this is one of those policies that the president's coming out with saying how do i have a legacy that people remember me by? and i also think a little of this has to do with guantanamo

bay. he's got to normalize cuba, something i think he wants to close before his presidency, may go to cuba and have some sort of visit there is something i think he see tins next two year, so i don't know if this is really going to help as much as he thinks it's going to. i think this was a terrible negotiation with bad precedence when it comes to innocent americans held captive while we trade known actual people i would refer to as terrorists in exchange. it was a bad negotiation, cuba came out way on the top end of this. so i'm sure they are thrilled about it but long term is this going to have a big influence, probably not as much as he wants but this may be about the legacy of the next two years. >> and maria, to talk about what we saw in north korea, the president having harsh words for north korea after it was learned that they believed that they were responsible for the hacking and this threat against sony. let's listen. >> sony's a corporation, i am

sympathetic to the concerns that they faced. having said all that, yes, i think they made a mistake. we cannot have a society in which some dictator some place can start imposing censorship here in the united states. because if if somebody's able to intimidate folks out of releasing a satirical movie, imagine what they start doing when they see a documentary that they don't like. >> so maria, the state department says that the sony cyber attack was not terrorism but the president has stated that they have to have some sort of proportional response. is the administration going to be forced to change its policy toward north korea? >> the administration is going to go but i do think that what the president said last night echoes the sentiments of the

majority of americans, i think that most americans did feel that sony made a mistake because they don't want to be intimidated by like what the president said some dictator somewhere. because where will it end? and this is exactly what this country is known for. americans are free to do what they want. american businesses should be free to do what they want and in terms of putting out the products that they are known for. and so i think that the president was certainly voicing where the american people are on this, and what he said about a proportional response in terms of what they believe is the best way to move forward is also something i think americans were happy to hear. the fact we're not going to take this lying down so. we'll see what it is, we don't know yet. but i think that this is something that the american people liked to hear from the president last night. >> ben, the president took on social politics in the interview with people magazine, talked about the i can't breathe

t-shirts that we saw some of the athletes in the nfl, also the nba, lebron james wore one, he said quote let's put it up. he thinks lebron did the right thing. we forget. lebron is an example of a young man who has in his way tried to say i'm part of this society too. should he have weighed in there? there are many who agree and disagree with these athletes bringing social politics on the field of the court. >> i think these guy. they want to get behind this and do it on their own time, off the court, then by all means do it. i think one of the biggest differences between an arthur ashe or mohammed ali they were in this continuously. this wasn't a media campaign or easy way to get involved and then not remember it. i mean sometimes i think these social media campaigns are really a little self serving and somewhat naive the impact they

are going to have. if you believe this you have to see it through. ali was one of those. it wasn't a hey, i'm going to get a lot of retweets or i'll jump on a bandwagon. i'm more impressed by players that stick with it and go for it long term, not just because it's popular at the moment. remember the bring our girls back campaign, it lasted how long, a couple weeks. ice bucket challenge another example. you have to see it through. not just walk our of the tunnel one time wearing a t-shirt. i hope they follow through if they truly believe this and it's more than a quick p.r. hit for you and your brand >> so maria, i hope this is it new quick p.r., because this is whether we noticed at the press conference, it was unprecedented. i noticed it immediately. he only took questions from female reporters. and i have to tell you, i mean, we usednotice these things. we usedtake a count because there were so few of us there. so ann compton and helen thomas

and myself, all of us note how many people get questioned. how many women get questions. one, maybe two. three rarely. what's your take on this? >> isn't it fabulous that we now live in a time where there are so many fantastic female reporters that the president can take a press conference that lasted almost an hour, and take amazing questions from amazing reporters and they just happen to all be female. >> i know. and this sounds a little old school but i have to tell you this. we used to deliberately dress in red so we could get attention. you know. so they would call on us. that we would stand out from all of the suits. you see the red. that was kind of the standard way of trying to say look, i'm here. hello. call on me. >> exactly. >> what i think is so incredible about what happened there last night is that no one can ever

say that he did this just to essentially appease the female population or the the female reporters. why? because all of these reporters were top notch. they were great reporters who happened to be women, so yes, we all took notice and that's not a bad thing for a president and a party who is doing everything that they can to underscore the importance of the women voters and for an electorate that happens to be the majority female. >> all right. amen. >> a second amen. >> the white house says that they noticed the list, they were doing the print reporters and noticed that women, and they wanted to make that point. they wanted to demonstrate look, there is a lot of females in the press corps that do an excellent job. >> thank you both. >> thank you. merry christmas. happy holidays. >> you too. still ahead, no matter if it's across the state or across the country, we're talking about the

holidays, the weather may not be a gift for travelers this holiday week. we'll check the forecast when we return. >> and this is the season of giving but why deal with packed parking lots and crowded malls to search for the perfect gift? finding something meaningful doesn't need to be difficult. more on how to give it forward this season. ♪

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storms, floods and land slides, holiday travelers could be in for long waits at airports and on highways as the weather creates havoc in parts of the country. in oregon people along the clackamas river prepare for possible flooding after forecasts of heavy rain. authorities have warned that residents, they have got to be alert for those evacuation orders. >> let's go to karen maginnis at the weather center. >> it looks like a powerful pacific storm system taking aim at the west coast with high winds now added to the mix of the heavy rainfall especially in some of those intercoastal

regions. we could see as much as a foot in areas. one to two feet of snowfall. but the big information that we have to give you is that this is pacific moisture, because it's from the pacific that means there's a lot of warmer air. so the bulk of this in lower elevations is going to be rainfall. above the higher elevations you could see one to three feet of snowfall. in those low lying areas, mudslides, also debris flows especially where we've seen some of the burn areas so all the way from seattle to portland to just around the san francisco bay area, the rainfall continues, not just for today but even going into sunday as well. and beginning to taper off on monday. by monday afternoon it should all move out. we do have flash flood watches as well as warnings out, and this storm system is expected to move across interior sections of the west. so mountain snowfall expected to be heavy here, over the next several days. now, aaa says about 99 million people expected to travel over

the christmas holidays, the majority of them on the roadways. what can we expect? we go until christmas eve an area moves into the great lakes region on the back side of this, that's where we're looking at snowfall. we don't think major snowfall, but computer models are evolving, still plenty of cold air as we go into christmas day, for boston to new york, temperatures are going to be a lot colder than what we've seen as of late. and across the southeast, look for the wet weather. mostly in areas from charlotte to atlanta down toward new orleans as a very persistent area of low pressure remains in place. and there you can see going into monday that area of low pressure that will be problematic places like chicago, new york and into minnesota, we're looking at snowfall developing there. it's still snowfall expected for the rockies. >> a lot going on for the holidays. thank you, karen. sony having more troubles now after days of criticism over the decision to pull the

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the lawsuits against sony are starting now to roll in. former employees have now filed

four separate lawsuits against the media giant according to a report by several news agencies. the former workers accuse sony of not doing enough to safeguard personal information like social security numbers, the medical records. and of course this was all released in one of the largest digital breaches against an american company. let's talk about these cases with legal analyst for hln joey jackson. so, let's talk first about this complaint that says sony failed to secure its computer system, servers and data bases despite weaknesses that it has known about for years. do they have a pretty strong case here? >> good morning, victor. they certainly do. look, here's the reality. the reality is that this is a negligence suit and when you look at negligence it means someone was careless, so in legal standards, there's the following language. duty, breach, causation, damages. what does it mean? it means that sony certainly owed its employees a duty,

right, to be careful, to safeguard that. now when you get to the breach, obviously there was some breach in that duty to the extent that system was penetrated, as a result of that there was a cause of damage, significant injury to those people. now, when i say people, we're talking about 14,200 current and former employees and when i talk about injury, of course i'm not talking about physical injury, in that sense, but to the extent that your information is compromised. think for one moment about the magnitude of this. we're talking about private data, social security numbers, salary information, reasons for leaving, reasons for staying, medical information. and with that in the hands of people who have bad intentions it could be very damaging to be sure. >> so of course, the people whose information has been released, they have questions about their privacy and valid ones, but sony if this goes to court, they would have to release the specific information about their cyber protection.

do you believe this will ever go to court or settle out of court? >> you know what, i don't believe it will go to court. i mean, you know, obviously it's in court in as much as a lawsuit is filed but i think it's in sony's interest to get past this. they have a lot of explaining to do, particularly since they were on notice. this is not the first rodeo, sony has of course been hacked before. and that's one of the issues here, victor. in as much as the lawyers are saying you were on notice, you therefore had an obligation being on notice of being hacked before, that there were problems in your security system. and at the very least, based upon you being on notice of those problems you should have took the adequate precautions to ensure that this information is safe. in fact, in one of the allegations in the complaint they say you made a business decision knowing of this risk but not wanting to invest the time, attention and money to it. as a result of that, it causes a serious problem. so i think sony knows it's on the hook and i don't think they want protracted litigation, they

don't want to be in court. they want to resolve this, make good with former employees, give the employees the protections they need in terms of the credit monitoring, and move forward insuring or attempting to insure that this doesn't happen in the future. >> sony is now threatening to sue news agencies that published what was released by these hackers. how do you gauge the potential strength of a claim like that? >> now, that victor, i believe that to be problematic. why? the supreme court has ruled on this issue. not so much this issue itself, in terms of somebody hacking information and then what you do as far as republishing that information. but we know that the general tenor, the general approach of our court is free and unbridled communication. and to matters of public interest, you know, the media's not doing anything but republishing something that was stolen by someone else. so is there an ethical duty perhaps on the media, that you can make the argument.

but a moral cut they is one thing, a legal duty not to do something is quite different. so to the extent you say legally you can't publish that, i think that's a very problematic argument to make. >> joey jackson, we appreciate your insight. >> thank you. tell suzanne lowell for me. >> i'll let you do it yourself. >> hi, suzanne. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> have a great day. >> have a good holiday. >> i can't breathe. that's become a cry among protesters angry over the death of african-american men at the hands of police officers. now one woman has filed an application for a trademark on that phrase. up next, why that could trigger a fierce legal battle.

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back in april after confrontation in a city park. the officer involved in his death has been fired. hamilton's family says they want the officer to face criminal charges. >> a legal battle could be brewing with the phrase "i can't breathe" which has become as you hear a rallying cry for protesters angry over the death of african-american men at the hands of police officers. an illinois woman filed an application for a trademark on that phrase. garner's mother threatened legal fx the application is not dropped. >> a scary scene on a freeway after a truck slams into a police car. you can see an officer getting out of his vehicle to make a routine stop. when he returns to the car, a fedex trailer barrels into his vehicle. rescue teams had to use the jaws of life to pull the driver from the truck after it overturned. the driver failed to stay in his

lane. no word yet on his condition. the police officer was not seriously injured. and that's it for us. we will see you back here at 10:00 eastern. >> keep it here. "smerconish" starts right now. this has been an extraordinary news week and there are new angles on all of the big stories. first t hack heard round the world. the u.s. says north korea is guilty even as they are now threatening sony with more cyber devastation. i'll talk to a smart guy, the former secretary of homeland security tom ridge. and what if big hollywood stars were sent a petition about the movie in question but nobody signed? that has george clooney fighting mad and lashing out at his showbiz colleagues. is it possible we'll see another bush in the white house? we