two new york police officer shot and killed in broad daylight inside their patrol car. we're learning more about what prompted that attack. the u.s. asked china for help with the crippling cyberattack on sony while north korea denies it had anything to do with it. also ahead, a bumpy road of late has uber trying to get back on the right track. welcome to our viewers in the u.s. and around the world. you're watching cnn live coverage. i'm natalie allen. our top stories, new york city

officials say the shooting death of two of its officers on saturday was an assassination. officers ra s raphael ramos and wenjin liu were anas natu-- assassinated simply for being cops. >> they were assassinated. >> reporter: police commissioner william bratton says officers wenjin liu and raphael ramos both sustained gunshot wounds to the head while sitting in their patrol cars. >> they never had the opportunity to draw their weapons. they may never have actually seen their assailant, their murderer. >> reporter: the alleged asillant is ismaaiyl brinsley. brooklyn residents are shocked

and outraged by the violence. >> we have to take back our communities. this can't happen. we have two families that's missing somebody for the holidays. i don't condone this and i'm not with it. >> reporter: investigators say they're looking for a motive but that brinsley's media post indicated bias against law enforcement. the fallen officers were not engaged in the shooter in any way before they were attacked. i'm andy rose reporting. >> now cnn correspondent laura siegel shows us some of the online posts police say that the man behind this, brinsley wrote. >> reporter: as we piece together the tragedy we're piecing together the digital footprint of the shooter behind this horrific event. i want to give you a simple of his social media profile. the last post the shooter posted, i always wanted to be known for doing something right but my past is stalking me.

and my pren is the haunting me. an hour before that, he said why live if you don't love to live. also when we heard from the nypd, commissioner bratton, he spoke quite a bit about these digital clues and instagram and how the shooter had posted on instagram and they were piecing together the motivation behind this tragedy. >> i want to get to one of the suspicious posts, allegedly posted by the shooter. he said i'm putting wings on pigs today, they take one of ours, let's take two of theirs. he goes on to say, this might be my final post with a picture of a gun and emoji bullet. you begin to wrap your head around the clues and motivation behind this horrific attack. back to you. >> shooting comes at a time when some police around the u.s. are being criticized for their tack techs, high-profile cases, of course, that have got a lot of focus in this country, the families of the two unarmed black men killed by white police officers say they are outraged

by saturday's violence. u.s. president obama also condemned the ambush saying, quote, i ask people to reject violence and words that harm and turn to words that heal. prayer, patient dialogue and sympathy for the friends and family of the fallen. the police department's union chief is also asking new yorkers to remember the murdered officers and pray for the safety of the nypd. >> we ask every person in this city to bow their heads tonight and pray for our families. the families of our lost police officers, their families and the family of every police officer on patrol today who's in danger. this was a cold-blooded assassination like we haven't seen before. >> the union chief also said there's blood on lots of hands,

especially the may he's, oafter the mayor voiced support for people protesting police. officers turned their backs on bill de blasio when he arrived at the hospital on saturday to pay his respects. one of new york's former governs blasted de blasio and u.s. attorney general eric holder saying they put the officers' lives at risk. holder and de blasio voiced their support for peaceful protests after the killings of two unarmed black men who died after confrontations with white police officers, one in ferguson, one in new york. one of america's biggest shopping malls came to a standstill. saturday's protests hit the mall of america in minnesota. a couple dozen people were arrested as people shouted "black lives matter." the mall later said political activists were more concerned about making a statement than

safety. >> pakistani security forces had detained more than 100 people in connection with the investigation into that deadly school massacre from this past week. officials had been carrying out door-to-door checks in the city of peshawar where the massacre happened. the police chief there says they've recovered guns and ammunition. this is video from inside the school that taliban militants attacked on tuesday, killing more than 100 students. with the latest, cnn producers sophia jones me on the phone from islamabad. there were public outcries about this horrific incident, people wanting justice. what can you tell us about this latest roundup of some 100 people? >> well, natalie, as you said, there's been a lot of outrage. this incident has shocked the nation to the very core. there has been calls to the

government, they're expected to deliver and show that they will be downing something in reaction to what happened on tuesday in peshawar. so far we know there has been an operation which is a search operation door to door in the city of peshawar where security forces have been going and detaining people who do not have i.d. cards showing that their citizens in the city of peshawar. meanwhile, there has been air strikes over the past couple of days led by the military in areas of north waziristan. over 60 militants have been killed. there's been reports of a drone strike. there's a lot of pressure on the government and the military to respond and by the looks of things, the moratorium on the death penalty has been lifted and two men were hanged on friday who have been in jail for the past five years. there's a lot happening at the

moment and it's still ongoing. >> right. they have claimed that they killed some militants trying to flee pakistan. now they have taken in people who don't have i.d.s, say they live there. what's the general reaction to people to the government's work to try to bring people to justice? do they sense that the government is doing enough? or they're just trying to look like they're doing things? >> reporter: generally there's been a lot of support for the government and the military on the ground. there have been a lot of vigils, protests and demonstrations. very markedly, there was a cleric who refused to condemn the incident on live television. and over 100 demonstrators went outside his mosque and made sure that a warrant for his arrest was published. people are taking to the streets. they're not just waiting for the

government to respond. there is a lot of pressure on the government but they are being supported bied people. it seems like everyone has had enough. this is an incident which is unprecedented in its violence. i think everyone in pakistan is just holding their children very, very close and hoping and wanting a definite change in the government and the military's policy in dealing withp this. >> i certainly hope they find those responsible, just looking at the video of blood on school paper, that says it all, doesn't it, about what happened? thank you. sophia safey continues to report on the search for killers in pakistan. a man entered a police station in a suburb of torre, france and stabbed three police officers. reports say he was shouting "god is great" in arabic just before he was shot dead. the attacker was known as a

common criminal, a french citizen important in burundi. cnn's affiliate bfm tv reports investigators are checking whether islamic extremism played a role. a 37-year-old mother has been charged with eight counts of murder after eight children were found dead in her home. seven of them her own children. the woman appeared before a magistrate while in her hospital, somehow she was stabbed at the scene. police say they've contacted the fathers of all the children and have questioned them but no arrests there. the united states has asked china for help dealing with cyberattacks like what happened to sony. north korea denying any involvement in the attack. although the u.s. is pointing the finger at them. this prompted the studio to stop its release of the satirical film showing the assassination of kim jong-un.

cnn's will ripley continues to follow development of tokyo. he joins us now with the latest. interesting that china has been brought in to this triangle of investigation there. will? >> reporter: yes, it's really not surprising when you actually look at the reality of the internet infrastructure in this part of the world, natalie. north korea doesn't have much of an internet presence at all. the reason for that simple. if you were to have the internet in your country, widely available to your citizens, then they would be able to access the outside world. that is something that the average north korean is not allowed to do. they don't know what social media is, most of them have never been online. just recently some of the most elite in the country had cell phones. that's just within the past couple of years. most people don't even know what that is. but china, on the other hand, just next door, does have quite a large internet infrastructure and as you mentioned, china and north korea are key allies.

what the united states government and other investigators believe happens is that these elite cyberattackers, part of this bureau 121 that are recruited from pyongyang universities are trained in how to launch these cyberattacks and they go to places like china where they set up in hotels and other spots that have available internet access and that's where these atechs are actually being launched from. it allows by the way, north korea to somewhat distance itself from the attacks and say these aren't coming from within our country, they're coming from outside of our borders. that's something the law enforcement officials are very aware of. one senior obama administration official, says, they have discussed this issue from the chinese to share information, express our concerns about the attack and ask for their cooperation. both china and the united states have expressed the view that conducting destructive attacks in cyberspace is outside the norms of appropriate cyberbehavior. that coming from a senior obama

official, natalie. it goes to show the united states is asking for china's help as they push forward with this investigation. even as north korea threatens serious consequences. if they're not somehow involved in the probe. natalie? >> right. they're asking for a joint investigation. they want to be involved. what's the likelihood of that, will? >> very, very unlikely. the u.s. and china don't have a diplomatic relationship. north korea doesn't have a whole lot of credibility, frankly, with most countries about working together on any sort of investigation or coming up with a deal because often times, if the deal benefits north korea, it will be fulfilled only up to a certain point but then, for example, right here in japan they've been trying to work with north korea on a joint investigation of unsolved kidnappings. there have been missed deadlines, broken promises. that suggestion from north korea for this mutual investgation likely not being taken seriously at all. >> we'll continue to follow the latest developments out of tokyo. thank you, will. former champion heavyweight

boxer muhammad ali is in the hospital. he has pneumonia. as a fighter, ali called himself the greatest. he backed that up, of course, for decades with fast fists and a sharp tongue. and after retirement he kept up public appearances despite having parkinson's disease. his spokesman says the 72-year-old is in stable condition. his prognosis is good. he's expected to have a short hospital stay. remaining a fighter. next here on cnn, a new detention facility men the to house illegal immigrants just opened in the u.s. but it is getting a lot of negative attention from human rights groups. we'll hear what they're saying about it.

positive news about the fight against isis militants and their rampage. kurdish peshmerga fighters claim to control nearly 80% of sinjar in northern iraq. it came under major fire with isis militants. fighters are going from house to house in areas liberated from isis to check for booby traps left behind. one journalist says it's unclear why isis retreated. >> the coalition is very, very important. second, what's secondly important is the moral of the peshmerga. they fight with old weapons.

they have tanks that are 40 years old, just a handful of tanks but the moral is very, very high. isis invaded their ground. isis raped their women. isis beheaded their relatives. so they want to throw isis out of kurdistan and this is what they're doing right now. why did isis leave? to be honest, i don't know. nobody would have expected that isis would just leave sinjar town. obviously we're very surprised about the strength of the peshmerga, about the quickness of the peshmerga breaking the siege of sinjar mountain. >> the peshmerga source seize the minority can return to their homes over the next month. i'm sure they'll be happy to do that although many of the buildings in ruins. the u.s. has released four more detainees from the guantanamo bay detention center. the pentagon says they're sent back to afghanistan.

this leaves 132 detainees still there. president barack obama has been working to shut down the military prison for a good time now, which began housing terror suspects after 9/11. the four freed men were suspected of belonging to the taliban or similar groups. a multimillion dollar detention center has just opened in texas. in response to the surge of immigrants crossing into the u.s. an immigrant rights group says the crisis needs a humanitarian response and calls this facility that just opened unjust. here's cnn's nick valencia. >> reporter: behind the chain linked fence and beyond the dusty dirt field sits the largest immigrant family detention center in the united states. the facility quietly opened this week in dilley, texas, about an hour outside of san antonio. while the surge of unaccompanied children fleeing central america spiked this summer, months later, the federal government

continues to work to solve the problem. >> those who came here illegally in the past, who have been here for years, have committed no serious crimes and have become integrated members of american life are not priorities for removal. >> reporter: but they are candidates for unnecessary trauma and prison-like conditions. according to immigrants rights groups who oppose facilities like the one in texas. >> it's the wrong side of history when i see these pictures of dilley, carnes, many people say it reminds us of the japanese and german camps we had in our history. certainly we don't want to repeat that. >> reporter: with 2,400 beds, the detention center at dilley will seasonally replace a separate facility in mexico. at a cost of $260 million per year to the american taxpayer, there are cheaper and more moral options. >> whether it be churches who are in charge of these individuals who can be responsible for them or

community-based organizations or even one of our most criticized program, you know, giving these individuals electronic bracelets, at the very least, that would be an option that would not cost the taxpayers money. >> reporter: dhs would not respond to specific criticisms of the centers but did say the facility in dilley, quote, promotes and highlights the executive actions president obama announced on november 20th. >> the federal government had a high rate of detention. more than 68,000 unaccompanied minors were caught crossing the border since last october. it's figuring out what to do with them afterwards that's still the biggest problem. nick valencia, cnn, atlanta. nasa's robot on mars continues to find revealing clues about the possibility of life. coming up next here, we'll show you what it's turning up.

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or drink something that is acidic on a daily basis. those acids made over time wear the enamel. a lot of patients will not realize what's happening to the enamel. once it's gone, it's gone away for good. i recommend pronamel. it's designed specifically to help strengthen the teeth. pronamel will actually help to defend the enamel from the acids in our diet. if you know that there is something out there that can help, why not start today? nasa's robotic rover curiosity leads researchers to think there could be organic material on the red planet. >> i'm scanning the galaxy for signs of hostile anti-martian activity. >> reporter: nasa hasn't found the equal to marvin the martian but they may be getting closer to finding life on mars all

thanks to the rover curiosity. since 2012, curiosity has been scouring an ancient martian crater looking for signs of methane. what curiosity found gives scientists hope. over a period of 60 martian days, longer than earth days, detectived burps or sudden increases of methane in the crater's atmosphere. scientists say it suggests it comes from a localized source, possibly bacteria below the surface. >> we only know of one place in the universe, that's on earth. >> reporter: much more work needs to be done to determine the source of the methane. it is possible the gas may not be from life at all. scientists say more measurements of one of these so-called burps could reveal crucial clues. short of that, in 2019 europe's

rover is equipped to land. it's equipped with a six-foot drill. >> what do you think you are, real martians? >> we are. >> reporter: maybe one day, humanity will discover which was once the stuff of movies and tv is a reality. cnn, london. derek van dam is looking for discoveries here on earth. it's the winter solstice. >> it is. >> and is it cold, is it warm? what's winter doing to us so far. >> depend s on where you are. did you know mars and earth have approximately the same land mass even though mars is a quarter of the size of earth? earth is covered by so much water, what they're searching for on mars by the way. we have officially the winter and summer solstice upon us. in fact, taking place today, eastern standard time, around 6:03 in the evening for the northern hemisphere, shortest

day of the year in terms of daylight hours. in the southern hemisphere we get to enjoy the longest daylight hours of the year this time of the year. we're expecting upwards of 14 to even 15 hours of daylight for some elections. we'll switch gears and talk about the west coast of the united states where we have been monitoring a major storm. look at this constant stream of moisture across the pacific. it looks like a nozzle spraying water on the west coast. this is referred to as around atmospheric river. it's a powerful pacific jet accompanied by a vast amount of moisture. that moisture is being deposited in the form of rain across the west coast. travel delays expected today and into the start of the workweek for places like seattle and into even portland, oregon. in fact we have flood watches and warnings in effect for this region, mud slides are a concern. we'll be monitoring this area very closely. lots of mountain snow by the way

for the northern rockies and into the cascades. not measuring it in inches, we're measuring it in feet. across europe we have this repeat weather pattern that continues to bring rainy weather to places like dublin and into london as well as berlin. here's your christmas weather forecast. yes, those temperatures are above freezing. not cold enough for a white christmas for many locations across europe. that's okay for santa. he doesn't need the snow, natalie. take a look at what this guy gets up to when he takes a break from the north pole. he visits some of the creatures and the good behaving mermaids under water. this is in key west, actually. santa delivering presents to all those down there. >> hopefully that christmas tree

can feed water mammals or something. >> hopefully he was one extra for me. i've been a pretty good boy this year. >> all right, thank you. all right. coming up here, the u.s. blames north korea for cyberattack on sony pictures but some experts say pyongyang didn't act alone. ahead, we'll show you who else may have played a part. also ahead here, big changes in store for the television industry. we'll show you what is driving millions of cable tv subscribers to cut the cord. kinda: we're new to the pacific northwest. the rain, the mud-babam! it's there. the outside comes in. (doorbell) it's a swiffer wetjet! oh, i love this! i could do this everyday. ewww. sunshine is overrated, now we can get messy.

police in new york city are

using social media posts to learn why a man gunned down two officers saturday while they sat in a patrol car. police say the shooter killed himself and was found inside a nearby subway station. they called the ambush an assassination. police in cannes, australia have charged the 37-year-old mother with eight counts of either after eight children were found dead in her home. seven of the victims were her own children. the woman appeared in front of a magistrate while in her hospital bed. somehow she was found stabbed at the scene. former heavyweight boxing champ muhammad ali is in the hospital being treated for pneumonia. the boxer who billed himself as the greatest has parkinson's disease. a representative says he's in stable condition and could leave the hospital soon. the u.s. is turning to china for help dealing with cyberattacks like the one that hit sony. that attack which the u.s. blames on north korea prompted the studio to stop its release

of the satirical film "the interview." north korea meantime insists it was not behind this cyberattack. now pyongyang, the capital, warns of serious consequences if the u.s. retaliates. here's kyung lah with more from seoul. >> reporter: just hours after president obama lands in hawaii for the christmas holiday, the regime lashes out via state-run television with all of its usual bluster, the regime slams u.s. government's investigation of the sony hack as childish, that north korea is being framed, saying it can prove its innocence without using any torture methods like the american cia. those digs come in response to president obama, that the evidence points to pyongyang. >> 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. north korea directly rebuked the president, saying it is the one who should respond after insults to its supreme leader but adds it will not conduct terror against innocent moviegoers, rather target the originators of the insult. >> you two are going to be in a room alone with kim and the cia. would love it if you could take him out. >> reporter: the movie and the hack at sony got north korea's bank roller and ally, china, to responsible. an editorial calls the movie's vicious mocking of trim senseless cultural arrogance and china was once a punching bag for hollywood. now that the chinese market sits as a gold mine for u.s. movies, the teasing shifts to impoverished north korea. >> the north koreans and fiery

rebuttal to president obama by curiously suggesting that the two countries work together in a mutual investigation to find the real culprit. north korea saying if america refuses there will be serious consequences. kyung lah, cnn, seoul. >> that cyberattack on sony was damaging and sophisticated, perhaps too sophisticated for north korea, according to some experts. brian todd has more on who else might be behind the attack. >> reporter: the cyberforensic evidence all points to north korea, according to the fbi, the computer code, algorithms, the ip addresses. that's not necessarily a clear path to pyongyang. >> it's circumstantial evidence that can be faked. >> reporter: scott borg's cyber security group monitors hackers across the globe. there were elements in the sony attack that went beyond their skill level. >> biggest one is that they were

able to carry on with activities inside sony's network for so long without being spotted. moving possibly terabytes of data without anyone noticing requires skill. opening documents all over the place in order to download them and have no one notice requires quite a bit of skill. >> reporter: they didn't have that, even recently? >> that's right. earlier this year there was no sign of that level of skill. >> reporter: he believes kim jong-un's regime may have outsourced some of the sony hack but to whom? >> i think most likely this was hacking talent that volunteered to help them or criminals that they hired or someone inside of sony who provided them with all kinds of inside access. >> reporter: u.s. investigators have evidence that hackers stole the computer credentials of a sony system administrator to get inside access but could another government have helped north korea? one analyst says another u.s. enemy may be involved. >> there are signs that suggest

iran may indeed have helped. because they have worked together on missile development for many years, because iran has been a major client of north korea weapons. >> reporter: cnn reached out to iranian officials about that. they didn't respond. the white house maintains north korea acted alone. >> we've got no indication north korea was acting in conjunction with another country. >> reporter: north korea denies hacking sony but if pyongyang pulled this off without any outside help, it would be the greatest success for their shadowy hacking group called bureau 121. >> frankly, north korea, probably doesn't immediate the help. they've been investing in their own siper capabilities for the last four or five years very heavily. they've had a couple of trial runs with attacks on south korean media and banks. >> reporter: one analyst points to a key reason why other governments may not have helped north korea with the sony hack. he says most governments wouldn't be foolish enough to hand any kind of attack tools to north korea, given their erratic behavior. brian todd, cnn, washington.

a defector from north korea's regime wants to make sure people see the film "the interview." he says he'll send dvds of the film via balloons into north korea. he's been sending balloons with anti-north korea propaganda from south korea for many years. the plan to float the politically sensitive film into the country is being funded by the human rights foundation in new york. but the movie hasn't been released on any format yet. we have this just in to cnn after an eight-year ban on capital punishment, jordan has executed 11 convicted criminals. state-run petra news agency says the men were put to death early sunday morning for murders. the government gave no reason why it suddenly lifted the death penalty ban that has been in place since 2006. 70 years ago, a 14-year-old boy was executed by the u.s. for

allegedly killing two girls in the south. he was black. they were white. his trial took less than three hours. recently a judge overturned his conviction. here's cnn's david mattingly. >> reporter: at 5'1" and 95 pounds he was just a skinny teenager, only 14 years old, growing up in the town of south carolina back in 1944. george steny jr. was tending to the family's cow with his little sister in this field near an old set of railroad tracks when they crossed paths with two young white girls looking for flowers. george's sister remembers it clearly. >> they said could you tell us where we could find some flowers? we said no. and they went on about their business. >> reporter: they were the last known to see the girls alive. a coroner's report at the time describes a vicious murder. 11-year-old betty june benniker

and the 7-year-old were beaten to death, multiple severe head injuries suggested the killer used a hammer. the steny family fled in fear after police came looking for george. >> they were looking for somebody to blame it on. so they used my brother as a scapegoat. >> reporter: the motive was attempted rape. and in a dizzying rush to judgment, george steny's trial reportedly took just three hours. the all-white jury deliberated just ten minutes before the judge sent him to the electric chair. his defense attorney called no witnesses and filed no appeal. with attorneys representing the steny family today, i went back to where that tragic encounter happened, to find the railroad tracks rusted, covered and the field littered with painful memories. a rush to judgment i could almost understand. but why was there no appeal?

>> george steny needed to be dead soon. george steny sitting in jail for a year would have been an incredible difference in the facts and circumstances of this case. and i think in that way, they swept it completely under the rug. >> reporter: in spite of a confession police say they got from steny, family attorneys say a new examination of the few records that still exist shows a botched investigation. steny's alibi, his little sister was never questioned. there was no evidence of attempted rape, no evidence of blood on steny's clothing and no murder weapon consistent with the wounds found on the girls. what is left seems like an almost impossible story, that little george steny was somehow able to murder both of these little girls, beat them to death without a struggle, then carry both of their bodies and their bicycle about 300 yards that way to hide them in a ditch.

70 years later, the steny family asked a south carolina court to throw out george's conviction. all of the authorities from that era are gone. along with most of the court records. surviving relatives of the murdered girls continue to believe in steny's guilt and question his family's timing. >> i have sympathy for the parents and the sisters and the brother. i feel like they know that he did it and that's why they never have revisited the grave. they never have put a headstone or footstone. they never talked about it. >> if we had allowed a stone to be there and someone found out where my brother was, they probably would have dug his grave up and throw him to the wolves. even if you think i'm wrong, my brother did not do it. and i hate no man. >> reporter: in the end, the steny family got what they were looking for, the judge agreed, young george's rights had been violated and threw out his conviction.

described by his family as bright and talented, george steny wanted to be an artist when he grew up, daring to dream beyond the limitations of life in the segregation of the south. instead his name will be forever linked to a tragic story of injustice. david mattingly, cnn, south carolina. i will take beauty into my own hands... where it belongs olay regenerist renews to reveal new skin in only five days. without drastic measures. stunningly youthful. award-winning skin. from the world's #1. olay. your best beautiful.

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as pledged support for the country's hardest hit by ebola as the u.n. chief launched an official tour saturday, the secretary general was in liberia yesterday. he's also scheduled to visit sierra leone and guinea. the u.n. has faced criticism for its alleged slow response to the ebola outbreak. ban says he's cautiously optimistic the outbreak can be defeated. ebola fears caused low voter turnout in liberia saturday to elect a new senate. there were strict guidelines for voters and campaigners to prevent the spread of the disease. officials took voters' temperatures before letting them enter polling stations. results could be announced sometime today. the world health organization counts more than 18,000 confirmed or suspected cases of ebola in west africa. nearly 7,000 have died. the vast majority in liberia, guinea and sierra leone. new technology and bold business strategies are changing the way a lot of us watch

television. samuel burke shows us what's in store and takes a look at the company leading the change. >> reporter: 50 countries, 50 million subscribers. when it comes to streaming tv shows and movies, netflix, with its growing stable of original content -- >> i don't know whether to be proud or terrified. >> reporter: -- is the company to beat. >> netflix is now in the same league or hbo or showtime. no other online service is in that same league. >> hit him again and hit him now. >> reporter: the company whose addictive original series gave a name to binge watching, now is spearheading another term, cord cutting. perhaps no one company has helped people decide to cut the cord more than netflix. thanks to netflix mix of old and new programming, more viewers are cobbling together their own

entertainment packages online, changing the way tv is consumed. >> netflix incredible success absolutely makes them the poster child in that they lit the fire. >> reporter: now netflix is taking it to a whole new level. it wants to dethrone hbo's "game of thrones." with one of the most ambitious and expensive shows ever produced, marco polo. estimated cost for the first season, $90 million. >> you are not one of them. >> reporter: spurred on by netflix success in both streaming and programming, yahoo! and youtube are developing their own original content, amazon rolled out its own original series "transparent." >> tell me what? >> dad is a woman. >> reporter: plus hbo owned by cnn's parent company time warner, is writing a new app to watch content without a cable subscription. all this competition means netflix ultimate no, ma'dominany

no means assured. >> i think amazon and hulu can both get there in the near future. it just goes to show that it's not about where you put the programming anymore. it's about how good the programming is. >> i'm thinking lillehammer. >> reporter: >> lille what. >> reporter: netflix wants to expand next year, betting that marco pole poe will appeal to a wide audience, allowing for strong subscription growth worldwide. 2015 could be the year that streaming goes truly global despite fierce competition, netflix hopes to lead the charge or cord cutters could cut the cord on netflix. samuel burke, cnn, new york. it seems not a week goes by that taxi hailing app uber isn't in the headlines. how much bad publicity can one company handle? dan simon has more from uber's hometown, san francisco.

>> reporter: as thousands attempted to flee downtown sydney during the deadly hostage crisis, uber found itself in the headlines again. and not for good reason. as car demand surge, the service used in more than 250 cities around the world charged passengers four times the normal rate with uber's controversial search pricing. the company soon apologized and began offering free rides but the damage was done. it's the latest in a string of high-profile mishaps for uber whose high-speed growth from a few employees, no-name company to an international juggernaut has led to a series of troubling issues. everything from price gouging and privacy invasion to allegations of assault and rape. in boston with, authorities announced that an uber driver has been charged with rape and kidnapping. police say the victim was driven to a secluded location where the driver beat and sexually assaulted her. the company in a statement calling the crime despicable.

uber has been workinging closely with law enforcement and we'll continue to do everything we can to assist in their investigation. in new delhi, a driver had been accused of a similar crime, that as the company stresses that safety is its number one priority and it is working on security enhancements. there have been other recent issues. in san francisco, the company's hometown and in los angeles, a lawsuit filed by the d.a.s accuses the companies about misleading about driver background checks. in portland, madrid and bangkok, they have to seize operations. in paris, the court has banned uber pop after the taxi industry protested. all this for a company that just launched four years ago and is now valued at more than $40 billion. as an entrepreneur did you ever think you'd be running a car service? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: that's uber ceo back in the early days

explaining to me the original vision behind the company. >> it was for me, my co-founder and our 100 friends to be able to push a button and an s-class mercedes rolls up that was it. but everybody wanted it. all of our friends wanted it and their friends wanted it. we just opened it up. >> reporter: uber doesn't employee their drivers. instead it serves as a technology middleman connecting them to passengers. its valuation has surpassed companies like delta and hertz but the press coverage hasn't always been so friendly. >> it was terrifying. >> reporter: just last month, a sun yore uber executive said at a private dinner uber should pay $1 million to hire opposition researchers to dig up dirt on journalists writing negative pieces. silicon valley blogger sara lacy, one of the apparent targets of the scheme. >> i've covered powerful tech companies for a long time and powerful moguls to a long time. i've never heard a plan like that detailed before.

>> reporter: they later tweeted this is not the outlook of the company. >> if the company doesn't address this, this robinhood type value proposition might turn into a darth vader if they're not careful enough about how quickly these things get out of control. >> reporter: uber likened its struggles to a political campaign, which is why they hired david plouffe who helped mastermind president obama's election in 2008. his job, to get uber in cities where the powerful industry has been successful in keeping them out. in a recent blog post, uber's ceo writes acknowledging mistakes and learning from them are the first steps. he's trying to save the image of a company born from a simple idea. >> that's an aspiration and functional. i think millions of people in cities across the country and around the world want. >> reporter: dan simon, cnn, san francisco. >> just ahead, he can't walk or

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they've won three awards earlier this year. they beat their opponents 2-0. what a year. the adorable christmas pictures of britain's future king have sparked a buying frenzy. the little shoes prince george is wearing in his christmas photos are flying off the shelves. here's jeanne moos with that. >> reporter: you are looking at the royal shoe salesman. we all know that whatever prince george's mother wears tend to fly off the racks. be it a tory burch jacket or a coat by the fashion house goat. when the palace released three adorable christmas photos of the prince, shoppers were swept off their feet by his shoes. sales of this unisex navy blue leather shoe with a buckle skyrocketed. >> it's ten time mores than this time last week. >> reporter: she says with a smile. >> i'm happy. i'm hoping i'm saying 20 times

tomorrow. >> reporter: first walking shoes they're called made by a company that's manufactured shoes for two centuries. the name that's resting under the little prince's foot -- >> england. >> reporter: now your kid can walk in the shoes of a prince for 57 bucks. shoppers didn't just go gaga over the prince's shoes. george's $26 sweater vest, decorated with the london guard completely sold out that listed it under gifts fit for a prince. the folks at the shoe company had already been tipped off that kate visited a revul store with prince george in tow and purchased their shoes. when they saw the christmas photos with him wearing them. >> we were jumping up and down. we wanted to jump from the highest mountain possible. >> reporter: with most of us mesmerized by his rosie cheeks, who knew prince george's

subjects would be falling at his feet. jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> that shoemaker quite a lucky young woman. here's something you don't see every day, a monkey, kid you not, performing cpr. of course it's caught on camera. this little monkey was unconscious after falling on to a train track and shocked by electrical wiring at a station in india. his friend, seen there, worked for 20 minutes to revive him. the monkey tossed his pal into water, shook, bit and hit him, trying to get him to come to. it eventually worked because he started to show signs -- look at him trying to help him. that's so sweet. the little monkey started to show signs of life much to the delight of railway passengers who started to clap and cheer. how about that. cpr. get up. i hope he made it.

that's sweet. now to some very cute double trouble in japan. twin female panda cubs born december 2nd are on display to the public at adventure world. the babies weigh around 500 grams each. nearly three times what they weighed at birth. the adventure world park in japan now has seven pandas. that ends our adorable section of our news cast. time for me to go home and binge watch on some netflix. thanks for watching. i'm natalie allen. for viewers in the u.s., "new day" is just ahead. for everyone else, "best of quest" starts in just a moment. hey! i guess we're going to need a new santa ♪(the music builds to a climax.)

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♪ we are learning more about the gunman, his social media pages threatening officers and his lengthy criminal past. >> and new york city police officers showing their anger, turning their backs on mayor bill de blasio over previous comments about the death of eric garner. this is cnn breaking news. >> we're getting first look at two new york city police officers ambushed insued their pa