. hi, i'm brianna keilar in for wolf blitzer. wherever you're watching from around the world, merry christmas and thank you for joining us. right now, people all across the united states are packing in the theaters, observing that annual tradition of going to the movies on christmas day. but this year the tradition has an unprecedented twist. many moviegoers are defying hackers' threats an buying tickets for "the interview," the seth rogen/james franco comedy about an assassination plot against north korean leader kim jong-un. it's debuting today at about 300

independent theaters and you're looking at one of those theaters outside of baltimore, maryland, where an audience is watching "the interview" as we speak. our rosa flores is outside another movie house in new york and, you know, it makes you wonder, rosa, if this kind of backfired on north korea, if in a way the country unintentionally gave this movie a whole lot of promotion. i wonder what you're seeing where you are. >> we're seeing a lot of moviegoers. i want to show you the movie poster, brianna, because it went up minutes ago. this was not even here. this is how fresh all of this is because of the rapid release. now i want to take you -- i want you to see the marquis here because many people didn't even think this movie was ever going to make a cinema in the united states. now we know more than 300 independent theaters are running this movie. here you pay $12, you buy your ticket right here, you walk in, a few people just walked out

moments ago because the first showing wrapped up and we talked to them. there's mixed reviews. some said it was great. all we wanted was laughs and those laughs were delivered. other people were like, you know, hesitant about the plot you were talking about. here's what one gentleman had to say. >> it was political satire over the top comedy for sure. i mean, there was a real controversy because of the issues of pulling it out of theaters and threats of blowing up patrons, so there was certainly a controversy. but this was a goofy, political satire movie that is straightforwardly entertaining but it does -- it is certainly anti-north korea. it said bad things about north korea and about their leader for sure. >> now this particular theater received an e-mail from the fbi, a call from the fbi, and a visit by the nypd to give them information about terrorism.

they also have a poster that is going to be posted that's going to be going up just letting people know what number to call if they see anything suspicious, brianna. but here is the little tidbit of information. the gentleman you listened to, i talked to both him and his wife, and he tells me his wife wanted to come watch the movie but didn't want to use her credit card to pay for the tickets. so she made him use his credit card because, of course, aside from the threats, the physical threats of violence they received a lot of people were worried about the hacking. not so much the physical violence at a movie theater. >> wow. you're really seeing concerns about that. thank you so much for your report. seth rogen and "the interview" codirector evan goldberg made a surprise appearance at a sold-out midnight showing of "the interview" at a movie theater in los angeles and had something to say before the movie started. ta take as listen. >> this is our neighborhood, we live around here.

>> we live near here. >> we've been here before. the fact that you guys all came out is super exciting. we just really wanted to say thank you. if it wasn't for theaters like this and for people like you guys, this literally would not be happening right now. >> thank you guys, so much, we really appreciate it. >> hope you like the movie. >> is he holding a beer? that's sort of a -- that's a cool movie theater, i guess. "the interview" also available on-line streaming on youtube, google play, other digital outlets. joining me from irvine, california, to talk about this, cnn intelligence and security analyst bob baer, here in washington, our global affairs correspondent. ahis, from the get-go here, i thought wow, poor sony but sony is a loser in all of this, put money into a move year, it's not going to pay off. now we're seeing the opposite of that and when it comes to, you know, geopolitically who are the winners a and losers here?

>> some people say all publicity is good publicity, brianna, sony started off as the big loser here between the hacking, embarrassing e-mails, and then all of the threats and having to pull the film and then the rebukes from president obama to industry, now kind of forcing them really to do something and release the film. if this film does really well, obviously, you know, that's good publicity for them. but i think on the whole they didn't come up looking so favorably. even though they're releasing the film. now north korea, started off here as a winner. because this is what north korea loves to do. >> to force the hand -- make -- >> they love to get attention. and the fact that kim jong-un and the north korean regime was able to get this big sony studio to pull a movie that was derogatory about kim jong-un, i think initially they came out to be a winner here. now they could end up to be a loser because now they're going to have to deal with the repercussions of that. president obama has threatened,

promised there will be action against north korea. and the film is out now, i don't know how many north koreans really would need to kind of see this because they're fed so many myths about kim jong-un to make them revere him. i think that in north korea, that movie is not going to be shown. clearly this demeaning movie about portraying kim jong-un's assassination is out there, and he doesn't look so good. i think president obama comes out pretty strong here. initially these racist e-mails about president obama by sony executives were so mean and derogatory, it made people really sympathetic to president obama. he then gave a very sharp rebuke to sony saying he thought it was a mistake, that the film was going to be pulled, and he forced them -- >> basically forced them. >> along with the industry. he could be a loser too because now he has to deal with the north korea problem and there could be some, you know, another serious confrontation with north korea which nobody wants. i think everybody has a little bit of winning and losing in there. >> yeah. spread around i guess.

bob, you have these hackers, they call themselves the guardians of peace, they're threatening a christmas surprise if sony releases the movie. sony has. what do you think might happen if anything? >> i think if anything is going to happen, they're going to release some more sony e-mails. i think so far they don't -- sony doesn't look all that bad. just, you know, stupid traffic back with each other, the executives, but i think what this tells us is that north korea is still a very dangerous country. it has nuclear weapons. clearly the tactics they're taking on this was to simply ignore the movie. they were advised six months ago, let this pass, a b-rate movie, a comedy, nothing to with your politics. they ignored that. we're still dealing with a her mitt kingdom we don't really understand and unfortunately it's a hermit kingdom with nuclear weapons. >> bob, you know, you have people watching "the interview." in fact i've spoken just

anecdotically with people i know who never would have watched this movie but because of the publicity they have gone and watched it on-line. some people wonder if maybe they shouldn't, afraid they might open themselves up to hacking. you heard possibly in that last report there was a woman who went to the movies, didn't want to use your credit card, she told her husband to use his credit card, didn't want to open herself up to retribution. do you think that's a real concern? >> i don't think it's a real concern. the north koreans would have to hack into, for instance, visa or american express and run an algorithm through it to see who went to the movies and, you know, just way too complicated. i think they -- the -- they'll go for a bigger cyber bomb likes against sony, more sony e-mails. at the end of the day i think we all did the right thing, sony did releasing this movie, not going to stand for external censorship, we can't. so i think it's a christmas day victory for us all. >> do you think, elise, you're hearing a law enforcement source

tells cnn that fbi and also the department of homeland security, has sent out a joint intelligence bulletin. what's this about? >> it's just a warning to be alert. obviously there have been a lot of threats out there both by the guardians of peace that claimed responsibility for the hacking, but also their a' worried about co copycats, letting law enforcement and everybody know to be aware of those threats a and be careful. there's no specific threat. but everybody is. they want to see the movie. they're curious. everybody as we saw at that movie theater, a little jittery. >> quick to both of you before we go, are you going to see it? have you seen it? >> i haven't seen it yet but i'm going to see it. i follow north korea very carefully and i can't resist. >> it's part of the story. what do you think, bob? >> well, this for me is a [ inaudible ] holiday. i was tasked to get rid of people before, but i guess it's a good comedy. i'll see it for sure. >> i'll see it too. there you go. maybe sony is the winner to sort of bring it if full circle. elise and bob, thank you to both of you joining us today. >> and still ahead, questions remain over how a coalition

plane went down over isis territory. we are going to the pentagon for an update on that. and later he's exploring the idea of running for president. jeb bush may be closer to a decision on running. >> hi, i'm travis powell. i would like to wish my family in north carolina merry christmas and happy new year beautiful wife jessica and daughter lee ann, daddy misses you. which means it's time for the volkswagen sign-then-drive event. for practically just your signature, you could drive home for the holidays in a german-engineered volkswagen. like the sporty, advanced new jetta... and the 2015 motor trend car of the year all-new golf. if you're wishing for a new volkswagen this season... just about all you need is a finely tuned... pen. get zero due at signing, zero down, zero deposit, and zero first month's payment on select new volkswagen models.

the father of a jordanian pilot is pleading with isis militants to put mercy in their hearts and release his son. >> translator: he is now in the hands of islamic state fighters and i do not want to describe him as a hostage. i call him a guest. he is a guest among brothers of ours in syria's islamic state. i ask them in the name of god and ask for the dignity of the pro fet mohammads peace be among him and treat him well. >> 26-year-old moaz al kassasbeh was captured yesterday when his plane went down during a mission over the self-proclaimed isis capital of raqqah in syria. isis claimed it shot the plane

down but the u.s. military says evidence indicates militants did not take down the aircraft. u.s. central command adding this, quote, we will support efforts to ensure his safe recovery and will not tolerate isil's attempts to misrepresent or exploit this unfortunate aircraft crash for their purposes. joining me pentagon correspondent barbara starr. you have centcom indicating that perhaps they have a reason to believe that isis couldn't do this. is there any like strict evidence about why they wouldn't have been able to. >> well, look, i mean it's very unusual for central command to come out with such an adamant, clear, unequivocal statement, they say the shootedown did not happen, the plane went down for some other reason. we don't know what that reason is. if you think about it, it's sort of logically how could they come to this conclusion. did the pilot perhaps make a mayday call? was he having technical problems? were there some other problems

with the plane, some equipment failure? did a wing man see something? if a wing man flying nearby they would have seen a missile launched. maybe the wing man didn't report it. he didn't see anything. we don't know. there's a lot of very typical factors that can go into the military somethicoming to an in understanding of what happened. clearly they want the pilot back, to be able to talk to him, and if it was some sort of technical, maintenance issue, or equipment problem with the plane, they're also going to want -- they don't have the wreckage but they're going to want to know what went wrong, the f-16 is a real work horse, for so many air forces around the world so they need to figure out here what exactly did happen. >> could there be any element, barbara, of the pentagon trying to downplay isis' capabilities here so as not to raise fears? >> well, spouppose anything is possible but again, if there's

some sort of evidence that it was shot down and the pentagon knew that and lied in an open press release from a four-star general, i think that is pretty unlikely. one can only assume at this point that general austin, the head of central command, has good reason to put out a statement to say evidence is clear. if new, different evidence comes to light, you know, so be it, but they are pretty clear in their public statement and that's something the military doesn't really take likely. >> all indications the pentagon has reason to believe isis doesn't have these capabilities to take down a jordanian plane. since i have you here, i want to shift gears. there is a "washington post" report and it says that the white house wants to accelerate the closure of guantanamo. this was something obviously president obama wanted to do from the very beginning of his presidency. what can you tell us about this? >> what we all know now is that -- not sure accelerated but they are moving in the

direction, the president making very clear that he continues to try and get as many detainees from guantanamo bay sent back to their home countries or it find third countries to take them. expect to see another five or so detainees in the next five days, and perhaps another five or so early next year. one of the stumbling blocks, 50 plus detainees there from yemen. they cannot be sent back to yemen right now. yemen is very unstage. al qaeda is very active there. so nobody wants to see those detainees go back to yemen and possibly readily return to the battlefield. they're looking for a third country to take them. the president making no bones about it. he wants to get the population at guantanamo bay down as far as possible, as fast as possible. he is facing big congressional opposition to close it once and for all to put the remaining detainees in stateside prisons

is something congress has been very opposed to. >> yeah, for years now. barbara starr, thank you so much from the pentagon for us today. and american veterinarian got the best present she could ask for this christmas, her freedom. stacy addison arrested in east timor after police found drugs in the cab she was in. the 41-year-old maintained her innocence throughout her detention. she will remain in east timor until she gets a new passport and after that she says, without a doubt, she is going straight back home to portland, oregon. just moments ago, the state department issued a statement saying the u.s. welcomes addison's release. and just ahead a cdc worker is being monitored for symptoms of ebola. we'll tell you how the lab tech was possibly exposed to the virus and how the agency is responding.

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the cdc dealing with another embarrassing an potentially dangerous mistake this time involving the ebola virus. a technician may have been exposed at one of the atlanta labs.

the cdc says there's no danger to the public but the incident raises concerns and we have joe johns with us to talk about the details. i mean, how is a lab tech exposed to ebola. >> i know, think about it, this is probably a lot about procedures and we might not even know about this but for all the other things that have happened over the last year. this apparently happened on monday, discovered on tuesday, the cdc said a small amount of material from an experiment was mistakenly transferred from one lab to another, might have contained live ebola virus, cdc says we're talking about one individual who's being monitored and that the technician has no symptoms of illness and that others who entered the lab have been contacted and will be assessed for possible exposure. so far cdc says only that one person is going to need monitoring at this point. they say they don't believe anyone else in the lab actually could have been exposed brianna. >> how do they deal with these lapses? you alluded to the fact that this is kind of what like the third one i think. >> the third one.

there was one with anthrax recently, another one, h 1 n 5 bird flu and now they have sort of a whole list of notifications. first close down the lab, then you decontaminate it and then you notify everybody up and down the chain. you launch an investigation. all these steps have to be followed so it really wouldn't have been feasible for them to keep this quiet. they had to go through the protocols and deal with this one situation which hopefully that person is going to be okay. >> there's comfort in that but i think if you work at the cdc, you've got to be -- >> right. >> you're concerned about your safety. >> yeah. it's all about procedures and when dealing with something as serious as ebola, this is a whole new world we're dealing with right now and people have to be careful and everybody has to know when you got a problem. >> yeah. very little room for error. joe johns, thanks so much. the movie "the interview" debuts today in hundreds of theaters across the u.s. but many people are watching it from

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welcome back. merry christmas to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm brianna keilar in for wolf blitzer. "the interview" has made its premier in independent theaters across the u.s. moviegoers filed in this morning at a theater outside of baltimore and many say they are glad hackers intimidating tactics didn't stop sony from ultimately deciding to release the film. >> i'm a bit annoyed at the fact that you have one country telling this country what to watch and i am very upset about that. so i was really upset when they -- especially if it's north

korea. so i was just mad. i mean, i just wanted to come over here because i felt obligated a as an american to watch "the interview." >> if you're planning to watch "the interview" from the comfort of your own home on-line, you might be wondering how safe it is given all of the talk about hacking. could your computer perhaps become a it target for hackers? let's ask our alison kosick. you know, i've heard this, alison, they're concerned about this. should they really be worried? >> they really shouldn't be worried. they should relax, grab the popcorn, watch the movie if you want to watch it. chances are just because you're streaming the movie you're not going to get hacked either during the movie or after. i mean the reality is, yes, sony was easy to hack into, but it doesn't mean that the movie itself has that malware or that malicious software attached to it. now it doesn't mean that hackers won't try. and if they do, a cyber experts still say you would be safe but there are a couple ways they

could try and ruin your viewing experience. for one, they could try to block the movie. they could try to flood google or microsoft with a lot of internet traffic, kind of like jamming too much garbage into a traffic chute. many cyber experts say good luke luc -- good luck with that. secondly, hackers could also try to lace on-line ads with malware, but that's pretty rare. even if they would try once again, you know, you see google and microsoft and ad companies they have a way of detecting it before it gets to your computer and it's pretty save to say that you're going to see a lot of these companies on high alert looking for hackers who are trying to kind of get in anything attached with the movie. >> i will asks this next question with the disclaimer that i did not major in computer science, i know you're surprised, i major in communications and psychology so this doesn't help, but it makes

the lay person wonder if it's so hard to hack into someone's personal computer, why was it easier or possible for the hackers to get into sony which you would imagine would have so many precautions against lacking. >> surprise surprise sony wound up leaving a welcome mat out for hackers. turned out through leaked documents sony employees kept lists of passwords for the company on spreadsheets on their computers, also they kept phone -- social security numbers of people, other information of people and celebrities kind of lying around in files that were unencrypted. this is -- sony was at least, we can assume that it was a place that didn't have much network security. the thinks is that will change. but it's kind of stunning when you see cyber security experts say you know what, sony isn't alone. there are a lot of companies that are one click away or one misplaced password from being hacked. a lot of companies don't put network security ahead as a

priority, maybe in this case after hearing what sony went through, companies will go ahead and step up. but it really makes you wonder, sony's hack came after home depot an target. so this may not be the last of hacks on big companies we hear about, brianna. >> i think we'll be seeing that change at a lot of corporations. all right alison kosick, thank you very much. >> you got it. >> turning now to other news. former president george h.w. bush is spending christmas in a houston hospital after experiencing shortness of breath on tuesday night. a spokesman says the 90-year-old's prognosis remains positive. he is staying, though, at least through the night as a precaution. two years ago bush was hospitalized for bronchitis and a persistent cough and it got bad that this time his aide says it's different. >> it could be another sign that jeb bush is likely to run for president in 2016. bush is resigning from the board of the tenant health care corporation. the former florida governor announced last week that he's exploring a possible white house

run. he also announced plans to release thousands of e-mails from his time ins office and some major newspapers have already gotten their hands on those e-mails an they shed some light on bush's political priorities. joining me now to talk about jeb bush and the 2016 presidential race, we have "time" magazine political reporter zeke miller and rebeccaburg, political correspondent for the washington examiner. the first question is how likely is it that jeb bush runs for president in 2016 and it kind of seems like it's gotten a lot more likely just in the last couple weeks? >> as you mentioned he resigned from the board of tenant. he has also resigned from the board of barclayss and as you said, he's actively exploring the idea. you can look back to 2010 when he was -- 2008 when thinking of running for senate in florida, and for a long time, there it also looked like he might consider running. he was taking all the steps, talking to the right people and didn't end up running. this time it does look a little

more likely. >> you talk to people and they say there are a lot of people who take all of these steps like rebeccas just mentioned to run and then they decide not to. >> at the same time this is a bush, he comes from a political family. he knows what he's doing when he says i'm actively considering. there's only one way, that's actively. sending a signal to the donors, operatives, give your powder dry, i might well do this. he's been sending those signals privately as well. doing it publicly that is a really strong indication of where he's leaning on this and things have definitely changed for the bush brand since 2008 since 2010, since 2012. he can definitely springboard now on to the white house if he decided to do that. >> the money is so important, sort of saying hey, hey, donors, hey donors, put your money to the side, wait on me, don't necessarily jump in for some of these other guys. there's so many other possible republicans. >> we can get to 15 around this table if we wanted to easily. >> much less another potential

from florida with marco rubio and many of the biggest donors are from florida. >> he has the texas roots. you're competing against ted cruz and rick perry potentially as well. >> yeah. >> he's -- he's competition in both texas and florida. >> throwing maybe elbows we could say. let's talk about these e-mails. this is fascinating stuff. it's not -- maybe not a bombshell, but i would argue it's almost as important when trying to get a sense of who jeb bush is, he's someone if he does run is going to have to reintroduce himself. a lot of people don't necessarily know him. they know his brother, they know his father. so "the washington post" reports on sort of the personal touch that he uses and some casual language like awesome and chill out. "the new york times" looks at what the e-mails reveal about his political agenda, smaller government, education reform. do you think this reveals anything about a presidential campaign that we might see? >> it does reveal as you said a lot about his personality and people think that they know jeb

bush because of his last name, but he's really quite different than his brother and then his father. so these e-mails do shed some light on what he is like, that he is relaxed, he is very hands on and it is consistent with what we've heard about his personality. he has been known if he reads a book he finds interesting, to contact the author himself and ask questions or offer his reaction. he is very much a man who will take these steps on his own and not rely so much on aides to do that for him. >> the bigger question there, he's been out of politics for a number of years already. he hasn't run for office in more than -- about a decade. how does he adapt to the modern political environment. that's a different question. he said in local tv interview he was digital before digital was cooling. >> which is fine -- >> that was a long time ago. >> when there was e-mail. we're talking about things like twitter and facebook and the modern news cycle, he released his book on immigration last february and that had a rocky rollout, seemed unprepared for

the modern news cycle where cable news is sort of faster than it's ever been, twitter, facebook, all these different ways of communicating he wasn't really ready for it at that time with that book. the question is certainly he's had a lot of time to think about it if he's going to run for president he needs to show he can handle it. >> a new way of communicating that whips the news cycle into double or triple speed. >> it's one thing to be the first op e-mail, another thing to adapt all the way through. >> very good point. hillary clinton, if she decides to run, i'm assuming -- i'm covering hillary clinton so i'm assuming -- obviously assuming she's running, we could see another bush/clinton matchup and you talk to people, i'm sure you've noticed then you've been traveling around the country talking to voters, and they -- they're kind of like, oh, more of the same. and yet at the same time it seems like they might actually be pretty comfortable with the idea of this die nastic race, right? >> because they hear the names bush and clinton and feel like they know what they're getting.

it's almost like a presidential race where you an incumbent running for president. they usually have an advantage because people are familiar with the incumbent, not this unknown quantity. there is an element of comfort that comes with that. but at the same time a lot of baggage that comes with these names. the clintons and all of the parts of bill clinton's presidency that rand paul has already dredging up trying to remind voters of the unfavorable memories of bill clinton. >> he will bring up monica lewinsky any time he can. >> the same with the bushes, the bush presidency, george w., much more recent and people are easily -- they very easily remember his presidency and will associate that with jeb. >> if you had hillary clinton facing off against jeb bush does that inoculate either of these candidates against some of the baggage, do you think, or no? >> maybe i mean in the sense there's a lot of history on both sides. the question will be for both of

them, how can they distinguish themselves from, you know -- in hillary clinton's case from her significant other, in jeb bush's case his brother and father and which legacy does he want to grip on to. but both of their names sort of been rehabilitated. how the clintons left the white house, the economy was doing well but at the same time a scandal of monica and the other sort of the white water scandals and the names name has been rehabilitated and losing 2008 has given her a second wind in 2016. for the bushes veen the past couple years we've seen sort of -- the name was toxic in 2008. jeb bush couldn't run for president in 2012. he would have lost. now help has a chance. the question is how do they use their names, the last name, to -- what are the best qualities they take and which do they leave behind? >> all right. we have so much more to talk about. i could talk to you guys for hours. luckily i think we will have you both back tomorrow and we will be looking ahead to a new year,

a new congress, obviously a lot of political fights ahead and the presidential campaign gearing up. i look forward to seeing both of you. zeke and rebecca, thanks. >> still to come, we have great news for wall street and for main street. your money's top ten stories of the year next.

an early christmas present rain down on a hong kong street. this amazing video of people grabbing cash in the middle of track. a van's rear door malfunctioned and dropped about 15 million hong kong dollars, worth about $2 million ins u.s. dollars. hong kong officials warn people who took the cash would be charged if they didn't fes up. 29 people have voluntarily hansed over about a third of the money. just a third. the dow surging past the 18,000 milestone is a great holiday present for investors but the market strong showing was not the top money story of 2014. richard quest and christine romance tell you what was in their top ten countdown. >> reporter: number 10, pressure from protesters. fast food workers take to the streets in cities across

america. demanding higher pay and better rights. it's working. four states have voted to raise the minimum wage in 2014. in the heart of hong kong's financial district, pro-democracy activists shut down schools, banks and businesses. that sent the hang sang stock index down nearly 6% in only one week. >> reporter: number 9, u.s. companies turn in their passports for new headquarters overseas and a lower tax bill. the treasury department and president obama fight back. >> it's not fair. it's not right. we don't want to see this trend grow. >> the administration issues new rules to stop these so-called inversions to stem the flood of u.s. companies cashing in on the tax loophole. the new regulation slowed some deals already in the works, but real tax reform is likely needed to close the loophole. >> number eight, ipos and mergers, they're back.

the king of 2014 is china's alibaba, going public on the new york stock exchange and becoming the largest public offering in u.s. history. nearly 300 other companies went public in 2014 and mergers and acquisitions came back roaring. the two biggest deals for u.s. consumers, at&t's agreement to buy directv and comcast merging with time warner cable. >> number seven, the taper is terminated. federal reserve chair janet yellin closes the fire hose that pumped billion into the economy through a bond buying program. that fed stimulus lasted six years with the final measures tapered down in 2014. the fed say it is labor and housing markets have improved, risks of inflation have diminished. the big question now, when will the fed start raising interest rates.

>> number six. apple gets its umph back. a new line of products including record breaking sales of the iphone 6, new ipads, the apple watch and apple pen, they all -- and apple pay, they all refresh the company's product line. its stock price hits a record high in 2014 and apple's chief exec tim cook becomes the first openly gay ceo of a fortune 500 company. he wrote in an op ed "i'm proud to be gay, and i consider being gay among the greatest gifts god has given me." >> number five, jobs are back. the labor market hit two milestones in 2014, first the economy gained back all the jobs it lost during the recession. 8.7 million jobs. it took four long years to do it. second, 2014 marks the best year in job creation since 1999, averaging about 240,000 jobs

each month. the jobless rate now below 6%. >> number four, this is the age of the hack. an exclusive cnn money report finds more than half american adults had their personal details hacked in 2014. mostly through retailers including home depot, michaels, neiman marcus and target. celebrities became victims as hackers exposed private nude photos. the year ends with a giant hack in hollywood. tony pictures is infiltrated. movie screeners and embarrassing corporate e-mails all hit the web. >> number three, an auto safety crisis. gm recalls 30 million vehicles in 2014, the largest issue, faulty ignition switches. >> i am deeply sorry. >> gm is compensating victims as it tries to revamp its

reputation. another crisis later in the year, japanese parts maker takata ignores calls for a nationwide recall following several incidents of exploding air bags. initially 1 million cars are recalled by five automakers. federal regulators say that's not enough. >> two words tell this story. record high. the dow jones industrial average racked up more than 30 of them in 2014. it's even more for the s&p 500. a brief pullback in october couldn't stop the bull run. the market has now gone more than 1,100 days without a pullback of more than 10%. investors will be looking for one of those in 2015. >> and number one, the top money story of the year, oil's dramatic drop. after holding steady for the first half of the year, global concerns pressure the oil market and prices plunge. they drop more than 40% from june.

in turn that hits oil-dependent economies like russia especially hard. russia cited oil prices as the main reason it slipped into recession. gas prices follow. it gives consumers a break ahead of the holiday shopping season. the national average for a gallon of gas falls a full dollar from the year. in some areas of the u.s. gas prices drop below $2.00 a gallon. >> don't miss cnn's top ten of 2014 special with brook baldwin, that airs this sunday evening at 6:30 eastern. 100 years ago this was the day that foes became friends, at least for a little while. ahead, an inspirational story about the christmas truce during world war i. hi. my name is staff sergeant mary.

i'm with the 13th esc stationed at camp kuwait. i would like to say a shout out to my family in ft. hood, steven key and an gelglyco and glen. merry christmas and happy new year. >> hi, this is sergeant first class webb with the eg 6 wanted to give a shout out to all of my members here at the 311. this will be my last christmas with you guys. it's been an honor, it's been a pleasure, i'm going to miss each and every one of you. give a shout out to my section the g 6, to family programs, to miss jennings, to everyone who has helped me along the way. give a shout out to my family also, all the way in jacksonville florida. i love you guys and miss you guys. merry christmas. ♪ they are a glowing example of what it means to be the best. and at this special time of year, they shine even brighter.

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>> hi. i'm out here in qatar. i want to give a shout-out to my family, my mom and dad, brothers and sisters. miss you guys. love you. happy holidays. merry christmas. >> thank you to those serving on this christmas holiday. this has become a defining moment in history during a war which lost a generation. 100 years ago today during the first world war, german and british soldiers laid down their weapons and they emerged from the trenches to play a game. it became known as the christmas truce.

max foster looks back at this poignant moment of peace. >> reporter: a british officer's scrapbook. photos that tell of an extraordinary tale in the great war. >> we found our enemies and we were chatting with some of them. none of them had animosity against england and they would be fully glad when the war was over. >> reporter: frattenizing took place along several german and british lines at christmas in 1914. >> the trenches were ablaze of christmas trees and we had the traditional christmas songs of the fatherland. >> tomorrow is christmas. if you don't fight, we won't. >> the answer came back. all right. cigars, cigarettes and

chocolates were freely exchanged between friend and foe. >> they were kicking a football about between the trenches. >> while proof of an actual football match is sketchy, the truce is a moment in the four-year great war that continues to capture the imagination. in this year, football teams across the u.k. have replicated the image of opposing sides standing together. memorials have been unveiled. [ applause ] >> and british supermarket chains have dramatized the truce in an ad campaign. there are tributes. however, wakefield who has written about christmas during the great war says the truce wasn't so much a sentimental act rather a necessary one. >> in winter 1914, weather conditions were really bad and

trenches were collapsing and flooding and in the lead up to christmas, some units had been repairing their trench lines by having to get onto the battlefield to do the repair work and the germans were doing the same and nobody was firing at each other. the lead up to christmas, there was this sort of semitruce going on already where people were just trying to make their lives move comfortable. >> frattonizing was frowned upon. some even considered it an act of treason. images like these would not be repeated. >> it's a remarkable event and it could only have happened that early in the war. by 1915, there's more hatred and propaganda that poison gas have been used. so the animosity has grown. >> reporter: amid so much horror, it's possibly not surprising that we choose to

magnify the humanity of one rare moment. max foster, cnn, london. >> in the u.k., queen elizabeth ii marked the holiday as she has for more than a half century with a christmas broadcast. she emphasized the importance of reconciliation and reflected on the christmas truce. >> sometimes it seems that reconciliation stands little chance in the face of war and discord. as the christmas truce a century ago reminds us, peace and goodwill have lasting power in the hearts of men and women. >> thousands of well wishers turned out for a glimpse of the royal family attending church with a traditional christmas day service. prince william and the duchess of cambridge were on hand. political prince george stayed at home. in vatican city, the pope delivered his traditional christmas blessing. pope francis talked about the state of the world today.

he denounced what he called the brutal persecution of people in iraq and syria and the pope also used his message to bring attention to displaced children and adults around the middle east. that's it for me. for our international viewers, "heroes" is next and for our united states viewers, "newsroom" with pamela brown starts after a quick break. alright, so this tylenol arthritis lasts 8 hours but aleve can last 12 hours. and aleve is proven to work better on pain than tylenol arthritis. so why am i still thinking about this?

how are ya? good. aleve. proven better on pain. hey guys...guys! pillsbury cinnamon rolls, with cinnabon cinnamon, are an irresistable sunday morning idea. nothing calls them to the table faster. make breakfast pop!

hello. i'm pamela brown filling in for brooke baldwin on this christmas day. great to have you along with us on this holiday. despite the threats of violence, despite cyberattacks and despite all major theater chains in america refusing to show it, sony's "the interview" is playing right now as we speak at some 300 movie theaters across the country. already the seth rogen, james franco comedy appears to be drawing big crowds. movie goers saying what it lacks in critical acclaim, it makes up for in patriotism apparently. >> you know, this is a film i probably would not have come to see but because of the controversy i thought we would come out to stand up for freedom of speech. >> i am here because i wanted to support filmmakers who were being censored by a foreign body because i don't believe that anybody should havehe