this is "cnn newsroom" live from atlanta. we want to welcome our viewers joining us from the united states and welcome back to our international viewers. i'm natalie allen. let's check the top stories. south korea has been directing anti-pyongyang propaganda at north korea for the last several hours. they're using loud speakers in response to the north's claim this week that it detonated an h bomb. the united nations says it's received credible reports of people dying of starvation in parts of syria. it says they allowed to let

convoys in. the food assistance would be enough to sustain 40,000 people were one month. chinese stocks manage to make up some of this week's losses friday. but markets across the asia pacific region are mixed for the day with japan, nikkei, and australia finishing lower. u.s. financial mashrkets are of to the worst four day start ever. we're hearing a lot of reaction as you might imagine to u.s. president, barack obama's remarks thursday night during a town hall on guns in america. mr. obama defended the executive actions he proposed earlier this week while speaking to and taking questions from an

audience of gun rights suppor r supporters and gun control advocates. in a new poll, two-thirds of americans say they are in support of mr. obama's executive actions. broken down along party lines, 85% of democrats, 65% of independents, and just over half of republicans surveyed say they favor the president's ideas. mr. obama laid out why he wants to see tougher restrictions for gun buyers. they include more extensive background checks, more money for metal health care and new technology to make guns safer to use. he also addressed the theory that he's trying to strip americans of their constitutional right to own firearms. >> all of us can agree that it makes sense to do everything we can to keep guns out of the hands of people who would try to do other's harm, or to do themselves harm, because every year we're losing 30,000 people

to gun violence. to thirds of those are suicides. hundreds of kids around the age of 18 are being shot or shooting themselves, often by accident. many of them under the age of five. and so if we can combine gun safety with sensible background checks and some other steps, we're not going to eliminate gun violence, but we'll lessen it. if we take the number from 30,000 down to, let's say, 28,000, that's 2,000 families who don't have to go through what the families at newtown or san bernardino or charleston went through. >> i want you to meet the widow of chris kyle. she wrote a book. we're happy you're here. what do you want to ask the president. >> i appreciate you taking the time to come here.

your message of hope is great. we greating new laws, you give people hope. when you talk about gun sales going up, i would argue it's not that i think somebody is going to take my gun from me, but i want the hope that i have the right to protect myself, that i don't end up to be one of these families. that i have the freedom to have a gun. the background checks wouldn't have stopped any of these people from killing. it feels like a false sense of hope. >> you will be able to purchase a firearm. some criminals will get their hands on firearms even if there's a background check. somebody may lie on a form. somebody will intend to commit a crime, but they don't have a record that shows up on the background check system, but in the same way that we don't eliminate all traffic accidents but over the course of 20 years traffic accidents get lower, there's still tragedies and

drunk drivers and people who don't wear their seat belts, but over time that violence is reduced, so families are spared. that's the same thing that we can go do with gun ownership. >> mr. president, you said you've been frustrated by congress. as a sheriff i oftentimes get frustrated, but i don't make the laws. and i've sworn a oath to uphold the constitution. same oath as you, and the talk and why we're here is all the mass shootings, and yet you've said in your executive action, it wouldn't have solved even one of these, or -- >> i didn't say that. >> well, the information, what would it have solved? >> none of the recent mass shootings, none of the guns were purchased from nonlicensed dealers. >> correct. that's what i'm speaking to, the executive action you mentioned earli earlier, aspirin, toys, cars, they're not written about in the constitution.

i want to know, and i think all of us really want to get to the solution, and you said don't talk past each other. what would you have done to prevent these mass shootings, and the terrorist attack? >> the challenge we have is that in many instances, you don't know ahead of time who's going to be the criminal. it's not as if criminals walk around with a label saying i'm a criminal. and, by the way, the young man who killed those kids in newtown, he didn't have a criminal record, and so we didn't know ahead of time, necessarily, that he was going to do something like that. but he was able to have access to an arsenal that allowed him in very short order to kill an entire classroom of small children. and so the question then becomes are there ways for us, since we

can't identify that person all the time, are there ways for us to make it less lethal when something like that happens? this notion of a conspiracy out there and it gets wrapped up in concerns about the federal government. now, there's a long history of that. that's in our dna. you know? the united states was born suspicious of some distant authority. >> let me jump in. is it fair to call it a conspiracy? a lot of people believe this deeply, that they just don't trust you. >> i'm sorry. it is fair to call it a conspiracy. what are you saying? are you suggesting that the notion that we are creating a plot to take everybody's guns away so that ke with impose marshal law is a conspiracy? yes, that is a conspiracy. i would hope that you would

agree with that. is that controversial exemcept some websites around the country? >> there are people who have a fundamental distrust that you don't want to go further down this road. >> look. i mean, i'm only going to be here for another year. i don't know when would i have started on this enterprise? right? >> the president, a few hours ago. the national rifle association rejected cnn's invitation to the town hall. it was not quiet on social media sending out a series of rebuttals on twitter, and while the town hall was going on not far from nra head quarters, its executive director appeared on fox news. >> this president can talk about background checks all day long. that's nothing more than a distraction away from the fact that we can't keep us safe and he supported every gun control

proposal ever made. he doesn't support the individual rights to own a firearm. that's been the position of his marg. what are we going to talk about? basketball? i'm not interested in going over and talking to the president who doesn't have a basic level of respect of law-abiding gun owners in this country. >> we heard from republicans and democrats. >> just because we don't want to support a slew of laws that won't make us safer doesn't mean we don't care. i also think his entire world philosophy, as we saw tonight, is really predicated on one uniting principle, that criminals are somehow going to submit to laws, and that requires a suspension of disbelief, and a lot of scenarios he outlined tonight that he wants to prevent are scenarios that are already illegal, and he can't explain what new laws, what new

legislation, new executive actions, expanded background checks are going to prevent any of these same crimes from being committed. >> before he announced it, there was a cry. you had conservatives saying this is going to be the gun grabbing apocalypse. then he comes out with modest stuff. they said don't make any new laws. he didn't. he's asking for mental health. enforce existing laws. that's what he's asking for support to do. for me to sit here and to see this president, it takes character and courage to sit there and have anybody throw any question at you. he answered well. some he answered poorly, but i'm proud of this president. >> and this programming note. if you missed the exclusive town hall with the president. international viewers can catch it at 10 a.m. in london.

6:00 p.m. in hong kong. after the north's hydrogen bomb claim, officials in pyongyang say they're ready to face more sanctions. u.s. lawmakers are set to vote on tougher measures against them. cnn is the only u.s. broadcaster reporting from inside north korea right now. he's our will ripley. >> i've been meeting with officials here in pyongyang. from them, this is about defending north korea's national sovereignty. this is a country that for the better part of 70 years has felt under the imminent threat of invasion from the united states and its allies. the u.s. is tied closely, militarily with south korea. u.s. troops are stationed around the demilitarized zone. there are missiles in place on the southern end of the peninsula. that's north korea's justification for continuing to develop not only their nuclear program but also their missile program and they have one of the

largest standing armies in the world with more than 1 million troops. many of them stationed close to that heavily fortified border. things are tense after north korea conducted the fourth nuclear test in 15 years. they claim they have experts who can prove it was a hydrogen bomb, even though many are skeptical. no change in radiation levels have been detected by others. officials i met with here said the explanation is that new technology was used to reduce the amount of radiation put into the atmosphere. i asked about the possibility of additional sanction with the united states voting. officials told me, frankly, they're not worried about sanctions. they say they've lived with them for so many years, the thought of more crippling sanctions doesn't intimidate them. they say they'll tighten their belts and go without food and

lek tristy if they have to, to defend their country. >> we look back at a day of terror. stay with us. we live in a pick and choose world. choose, choose, choose. but at bedtime? ...why settle for this? enter sleep number, and the lowest prices of the season. sleepiq technology tells you how well you slept and what adjustments you can make.

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u.s. republican presidential candidate, ted cruz is on the defense. two of his fellow republicans have questioned whether he is eligible for president due to his birthplace. we've heard this one before. as we're told, the bickering among the republicans doesn't end there. >> reporter: donald trump isn't letting go. fanning the flames about ted cruz's citizenship. >> he has a cloud over his head. >> reporter: today trump sent a message saying ted, free legal advice? >> i'm not going to be taking any free legal advice from tump. >> reporter: it's republicans raising questions over whether cruz could face a legal

challenge. he was born in canada, but his mother was a u.s. citizen. trump said cruz's birthplace raises constitutional concerns. >> there's a doubt. people have doubt. i want to win this thing fair and square. i don't want to win on this point. >> reporter: john mccain once called cruz a wacko bird, he was born on a u.s. military base. >> i think there's a question. i'm not a constitutional scholar, but i think it's worth looking into. >> reporter: in iowa tonight cruz brushed aside the comments saying he's pulling for rubio. >> it's no surprise that people are supporting other candidates are going to jump on with the silly attacks that occur. >> reporter: cruz emerged as one of the biggest threats to trump said the talk was nonsense. >> the legal is straightforward. the son of a u.s. citizen born abroad is a u.s. citizen.

>> reporter: he said he was done addressing it. >> i'm not going to engage in this. the reason is simple. there are too many serious issues facing this country. >> reporter: one more sign the fault lines in the republican primary are becoming clear. just watch who is feuding with whom. it's not only trump versus cruz but chris christie versus marco rubio. christie said rubio is too weak to be the party's nominee. >> is that the kind of person we want to put on the stage against hillary clinton? i don't think, she'll pat him on the head and cut his heart back. >> reporter: rubio fired back. >> chris has a liberal record. our next president has to overturn all the damage barack obama has done to america, not continue it. >> there on the campaign trail. it has been almost one year since the terror attack at a kosher supermarket in paris. among those who crossed paths that day were two people who shared roots in mali.

one, a gunman, the other was a hero. jim bitterman has the story. >> reporter: for one dramatic moment, parallel lives came together. they would end in radically different ways. for a terrorist, it was in a hail of police gunfire. the gunman killed four people and took hostages at a kosher supermarket, and then police took control can. another grow up in the sufficient suburbs of paris, the son of immigrants from the west african country of mali. early on he fell into petty crime and drug dealing and eventually radical islam, but that deadly day a year ago, there was another immant grant, a box boy at the supermarket. he turned out to be a hero. >> translator: i opened the door of the freezer and i said come, come. >> reporter: he sheltered shoppers and co-workers in the basement freezer.

he stood up to the terrorist and then slipped out by an elevator to tell police the situation inside. people called him a hero. >> translator: no, no. not a hero. i always live like that. i was raised like that. to help other people to aid those in trouble. my parents taught me that. >> reporter: all those he protected made it out of the store without injury. when the government heard about his role, his life began to change. for years he'd been on a waiting list to become a permanent resident in france. officials practically overnight made him a french citizen. he wrote a book about his experience and now he works for the paris city government. so how is it that an immigrant from mali became a hero and the son of mall yan immigrants became a terrorist? he has several explanations but topping the list are family and education. out in his paris suburb,

kulabali grew up in a poor family. a much different upbringing. >> translator: in you wanted to do anything, it was your parents to decided. you should do that. it's that which makes a difference between us. >> reporter: but there are other differences. batei left his homeland with a burning desire to find a new life and become a success. the home grown terrorist, unemployed and on the fringes of society never had a purpose or a sense of right and wrong. two young frenchman whose paths crossed last january. >> interesting story from jim there. well, a large bush fire in western australia nearly doubled in size. our meteorologist joins us with more about it. >> that's right. it's very impressive. as you said, doubled overnight which didn't give a lot of the folks much time to get their

belongings, get out of their homes and get where they needed to safely. here's some of the video coming to us recently from the overnight hours. you can see a lot of the fire very widespread in a lot of areas we were able to see. and, again, it's not just the fires. it's just the dry conditions that we've been dealing with. here is a look at the fires. where it's located is on the western portion, south of the city of perth. there are a few bush fires south of there, but we're talking well south. that's where the biggest cluster of a lot of the fires is located. this is where we've seen some of the biggest problems recently in the last couple of days. again, you can see countless numbers of fires. they even had a few firefighters that were actually treated for burns because of how quickly the bush fires were able to spread and get out ahead of them. again, you can see near varuna, this is a heavily populated area. this is a concern for people's

homes and businesses within this area. 7,000 people were at one point without power. hundreds of power poles just burned, and that was the cause for a lot of those power outages. the one good news is a change in wind direction. the last couple of days it's been coming offshore. it's been coming toward the west. you get the dryer air with that, but it's going to change over the coming days. that's good news. another thing to talk about is how much rain they've had in the northern end of the country. look at this. the dark blue shade, the highest precipitation on record in december. the blue areas are again above average. the area in the center is the basin. all of those rivers and streams that picked up record or well above average rainfall flow into that basin. and at the bottom of the basin is lake aeyer. you go into december of this year, it gets bigger, and then again toward january.

it takes a long time for the water to flow in. if it's at its fullest, it's the largest lake in australia. we're headed toward that, especially if they get more rain. we'll have to keep a close eye on it. >> thank you. we'll see you in a little bit. the british academy of film and television arts has come out in just the last few minutes with its nominees for the best in film and television. nominees for the awards in the best film category are "carol" "spotlight" ""the revenant"" and "the big short". nominated for leading actress, cate blanchett for carol. brie larson for room, and maggie smith for the lady in the van.

and nominated for best performance by a leading actor, eddie redmayne, leonardo dicaprio, michael fassbender, and matt damon. adverti it is the season for award shows, and next hour we'll have a critic from london giving us his take on all the nominations. i have a lot of movies to see. you're watching "cnn newsroom." we're right back with top stories.

in a cnn town hall meeting u.s. president barack obama addresses his critics and says he does not want to take away people's guns. bafta announces this year's nominee. did your favorite movie make the list sfwh we'll break it down at this hour. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. this is "cnn newsroom" live from

atlanta. i'm natalie allen. thank you for joining us. we begin with the gun control debate. once again center stage in the u.s. president barack obama spent thursday night defending executive actions he hopes reduce gun violence and mass murders, mass shootings. they include more extensive background checks and technology to make guns safer to use. in a live town hall hosted by cnn, mr. obama spoke with an audience of gun rights supporters and gun control advocates. he also took questions, including one from mark kelly. that's him next to his wife, former congresswoman gabriel giffords, a shooting survivor. >> often what you hear on expanding background checks, as you know, gabby and i are 100%

behind the concept of somebody getting a background check before buying a gun, but when we testified in front of the senate judiciary committee we heard not only from the gun lobby but from united states senators that expanding background checks will, not may, will lead to a registry which will lead to confiscation which will lead to a tyrannical government, so i would like you to explain, with 350 million guns in 65 million places, households, from key west to alaska, 350 million objects, 65 million places, if the federal government wanted to confiscate those objects, how would they do that? >> well, look, this notion of a conspiracy out there and it gets wrapped up in concerns about the federal government.

now, there's a long history. that's in our dna. the united states was born suspicious of some conspiracy. >> is it fair to call it a conspiracy? >> i'm sorry, yes, it is fair to call it a conspiracy. what are you saying? are you suggesting that the notion that we are creating a plot to take everybody's guns away so that we can impose martial law -- >> there's certainly a conspiracy -- >> yes, that is a conspiracy. i would hope you would agree with that. is that controversial? >> largest gun rights advocate in the u.s., the nra, national rifle association, refused the invitation but they appeared on fox news during the event. >> this president can talk about

background checks all day long, but that's nothing more than a distraction away from the fact that he can't keep us safe and he's supported every gun control proposal that's ever been made. he doesn't support the individual right to own a firearm. that's been the position of his supreme court nominees, that's been the position of his administration. so what are we going to talk about, basketball? i'm not really interested in going over and talking to the president who doesn't have a basic level of respect or understanding of the second amendment and law abiding gun owners in this country. >> mr. obama repeatedly argued that he wants to protect the constitutional right to bear arms and he had this to say about the nra's absence about the town hall. >> there's a reason why the nra's not here. they're just down the street. and since this is the main reason they exist, you'd think that they'd be prepared to have a debate with the president. >> they haven't been to the white house in years. >> no, no, we've invited them.

we've invited them. >> so right now tonight you would be -- >> we have invited them repeatedly. >> in a cnn/orc poll conducted this week, americans were asked how they feel about mr. obama's proposals. john king breaks down what they had to say. >> we asked people in our new poll first a more general question, what's your opinion of the president's gun policy overall? 43% approved, 53% disapproved. you would say that's a bad number for the president, right? he's underwater. just a few weeks ago it was 35/62. the president's numbers are going up. why? a lot of liberals who thought he should do more are getting more happy now that the president is getting involved. then we asked specifically about the proposals the president outlined the other day requiring those who sell guns on the internet to register as dealers, more background checks, more money for fbi agents. 2/3 of americans favor what he says he wants to do. 1/3 opposes what he wants to do.

that's a good number. 2/3 backing his proposals. it's interesting, when you look at the breakdown by racial and party lines though, 85% of democrats say, amen, mr. president, would he like what you're doing. that's a great number for the president. interestingly, he has a majority, very slight, of an evenly divided republican party. the president still gets 51% of the specifics of what he outlined the other day. that's a good number for the president. more than 6 in 10, nearly 2/3 of independents. the president has democrats, independents and a good number of republicans. >> if you missed the cnn exclusive town hall with the u.s. president, sbrir national viewers can catch an encore at 10:00 a.m. in london and 6:00 in the evening in hong kong. tensions on the korean peninsula are growing after the north said it detonated a hydrogen bomb. the south is rebuking pyongyang.

the broadcast began several hours ago. south korea is also increasing its defensive posture along the border. at times the north has viewed these broadcasts as acts of war. the u.s. is preparing to vote on tougher sanctions against north korea, and u.s. secretary of state john kerry says china, north korea's only real ally in the north pacific, failed to fully endorse sanctions. >> china had a particular approach that it wanted to make, and we agreed and respected to give them space to be able to implement that, but today in my conversation with the chinese i made it very clear, that has not worked and we cannot continue business as usual. we agreed that we will work very closely together to determine the steps that we can take in order to address our increasing concerns about that nuclear

test. >> all of this comes on what is believed to be kim jong-un's 33rd birthday. there has been speculation the nuclear test was timed for the event. meantime, officials in pyongyag tell cnn they're prepared for whatever new sanctions come their way. cnn is the only u.s. broadcaster reporting from inside north korea. here's our will ripley with more. >> reporter: i've been meeting with officials in pyongyang, and i can tell you this is all about defending pyongyang's national sovereignty. this city has for 70 years felt consistently under the imminent threat of invasion from the united states and its allies. it's tied closely militarily with the south koreans. they're along the demilitarized zones. there are missiles in place. that is north korea's justification, they say, for

continuing to aggressively invest and develop not only their nuclear program but also their missile program and they have one of the largest standing armies in the world, more than 1 million troops. many of them stationed close to that heavily fortified border. things are already tense here in the peninsula after north korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in the last 15 years. north korea claims they have experts that can prove it was, in fact, a hydrogen bomb even though many international experts are highly skeptical. no change in radiation levels have been detected by china, south korea and japan. officials who i met here in pyongyang say the escalation is that new technology was used to reduce the amount of radiation spewed into the atmosphere. in the meantime i also asked about the possibility of additional sanctions with the united states voting next week on more harsh sanctions against the north core rean regime. they told me they're not worried about sanctions. they said they lived with them for so many years, the thought

of more crippling sanctions doesn't worry them. they will tighten their belts and go without food and electricity if they have to to defend their nation. will ripley, cnn, pyongyang, north korea. paula hancock joins us live. paula, hello. >> reporter: hello, natalie. well, these loud speakers have been working now for several hours. this is the one way that south korea knows it will get some kind of reaction from north korea, or at least it will annoy them. it seems to be one of the very few ways that they know they are getting to pyongyang. it's really seen as a sore spot for them. of course, the question is why would this psychological warfare affect a country so much that appears to be unphased by potential international sanctions or sanctions already in place.

according to people i spoke with, the onset is they are scared of the truth. they are broadcasting facts about south korea, the health of the economy, facts about north korea, the regime, antiregime propaganda. this is exactly what north korea does not want people to hear. the regime controls information coming in and out of the kingdom very, very tightly. of course, this kind of propaganda loud speaker is exactly what they are scared of. they did fire on these loud speakers last summer, the last time they were used. before that they hadn't been used for about a decade. so soule is well aware in doing this they are racheting up the tensions far more than the nuclear test. there is the potential for a reaction, maybe a violent reaction from north korea. >> if so, what are the changes that south korea is doing as far as shifting any military in the

dmz? >> reporter: well, we know that there is a heightened defensive posture it's described as. basically, heightened security for the military along with the demilitarized zone. the most heavily fortified border in the world. we noticed that they're beefing up their cyber security. this is a way that north korea has attacked the south according to seoul and many times in the past by cyber attacks. some fairly significant and some damaging. there's ten of these loud speakers currently being used. some are mobile as well, so they're not staying in any spot for one period of time. it's worth mentioning that they do play music which may sound bizarre but it really is just part of this psychological warfare that, as i say, seoul knows works and will get some kind of reaction from north korea. >> paula hancocks following from seoul. thank you, paula. still ahead here on "cnn

newsroom," almost one year ago terror at a supermarket in paris. we'll have the story about two men who are from the same country but they have a very, very different way that they responded to this story. one was a killer, one a hero. we'll have that story. "ow..."

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. europe's financial markets hope to recover from a drastic slide at the start of the new year. trading is just getting underway this hour. let's check out the early numbers. london's ftse up .39% and paris the cac is down ever so slightly. in frankfurt the dax is up .33%. in zurich smi is down .20%. chinese stocks rebounded friday although the results in the asia pacific region are mixed. tokyo's nikkei finished slightly lower. trading has ended in hong kong where the hang seng ended, where are we, up, .59%. the shanghai composite closed .29%. asx 200 finished lower. we have a team of correspondents

covering world markets. matt rivers is in beijing for us. let's start first with the anchor of cnn's "the business view." nina dos santos is in london for us. nina, how is europe reacting this morning? >> reporter: a note of cautious optimism this morning, natalie. more green arrows across the board than we've seen as of late. some of these markets look like they're down. the composite, the market hasn't actually opened. we'll get the opening figures in about 15 minutes from now. ftse, dax going up, which is good, but not by a huge amount given the kind of hefty falls that we saw yesterday. we should also remind our viewers when it comes to markets in the united states, remember, they had their worst week ever for the dow jones industrial average, particularly the dow suffering from the two falls that we saw, the sharp falls and suspensions in china. so, that, again, bleeding into the mix. not setting up for a positive

day. european markets trade very heavily, at least the companies listed on these euro penoueurops trade higher. the only market above china is the united states. i want to point out the zet tra dax because that market is up .2 of 1%. the early trades start to filter through. so note of cautious optimism, but it has been tempered by the fact that we've had evidence of slowdown in china that's been roilg investor sentiments. it's having a direct impact on the companies of germany because german industrial output which has just come out a few moments ago show that it unexpectedly fell for the month of december and that is evidence, you see, of how it's affecting things on the production line across europe. a list of companies that are making their stocks so making their inventory in china and trading heavily with china

sending goods to china and being affected, their stocks will be affected on these markets, too. china rising, and as you can see, some of the european markets coming back but only cautious. >> we know you'll be watching it throughout the day. nina dos santos. let's turn to matt rivers and talk about china. he's in beijing. matt, what helped revive the chinese markets? >> reporter: well, much better here. stock markets closed not long ago, and in terms of what helped out, basically what investors are telling us is it was the news that was overnight that happened late thursday night around 10:30 local time or just after 10:30 when chinese regulators came out and said they were going to be suspending use of the circuit breakers. you'll remember it was the circuit breakers that were installed just this week in china that basically automatically halted trading twice during the week here.

these circuit breakers once stocks fell 7%, they automatically kicked in and halted trading for the day. what many people were saying, many observers of the markets were saying, rather than calm traders down as they were intended to do, it actually just panicked the markets more and made things worse. we asked one expert what he thought this morning about the fact that the circuit breakers have been suspended by chinese regulators. >> i think it's actually quite wise. i mean, they hadn't worked in the way that they had hoped they might work, and i think the real reason there is the circuit breakers were originally introduced in the u.s. to stop computers and algos racing against each other. that's not the sort of market china is. china is a retail investor market where they go down to their brokerage, maybe put in their own orders. so it's not like you've got computers that are just going to run haywire.

>> so what he's talking about there is just your average chinese investor who is seeing what was going on with these circuit breakers and rather than taking a step back and stabilizing the market, these investors were actually getting spooked and lining up their shares to short sell and get out of the market for the day. >> what a volatile start to a new year. matt rivers following for us from beijing. thank you, matt. now to paris where investigators are working to learn more about a knife-wielding man shot and killed by officers after he tried to enter a police station. authorities say he was also carrying fake explosive device and a handwritten note in arabic stamped with the isis flag. don't yet know the man's identity or motive. this week marks the one year anniversary of the brutal attacks at the "charlie hebdo" office in paris and the related attacks that followed it. cnn's jim bittermann talked with the man some call a hero for his actions that day.

>> reporter: for one dramatic moment parallel lives came together. they would end in radically different ways. for terrorist amedy coulibaly, it was in a hail of gunfire. they had taken hostages at a kosher surp err market. coulibali was the son of immigrants from mali. early on he fell into petty crime, and eventually radical islam. that deadly day a year ago there was another immigrant from mali, a box boy at the kosher sup he were market. if his fellow country man turned out to be a terrorist, he turned out to be a hero. >> translator: i opened the door of the freezer and i said, come, come. >> reporter: he sheltered shoppers and co-workers in the store's basement freezer, stood up to the terrorists, and then slipped out by a freight

elevator to tell police what the situation was inside. people called him a hero. >> translator: no, no, not a hero. i always live like that. i was raised like that, to help other people, to aid those in trouble. my parents taught me that. >> reporter: all of those that he protected made it out of the store without injury, and when the government heard about the young malian's role in hostage taking, his life began to change. for years he was on a waiting list to be a permanent citizen and practically overnight they made him a french citizen. now he works for the paris government and he wrote a book. how is it an immigrant became a hero and the son of malian immigrants 3w5i78 a terrorist. he has several explanations but topping it is family and education. coulibaly grew up in a large and poor family. the only boy in ten children.

much different than this gentleman in mali. >> translator: if you wanted to do anything it was your parents who decided, you have to do this, you have to go there. it's that which makes a difference between me and coulibaly. >> reporter: he left his homeland with an immigrant's burning desire to find a new life and become a success. the terrorist unemployed and on the fringes of society never had a chance of purpose or of right and wrong. two young french men whose paths crossed one decisive day last january. jim bitter man, cnn, paris. u.s. authorities have arrested two refugees from iraq, one in texas, one in california on terror-real estated charges. the 24-year-old man living in houston is charged with attempting to provide material support to isis. and the 23-year-old man in sacramento, california, is accused of lying to immigration officials after he allegedly

traveled to syria in 2013 to fight for terror groups. a series of sexual assaults and robberies in cologne, germany, is escalating tensions. we'll have more on the investigation and what's behind it specifically right after this.

and welcome back to our viewers here in the united states and around the world, this is "cnn newsroom" live from atlanta. i'm natalie allen with our top stories. u.s. president barack obama spent more than an hour thursday night laying out his case for stricter gun laws.

gun rights advocates pressed the president on how he's working to make america safer. mr. obama said he is not trying to take guns away from law abiding owners. south korea is now blasting propaganda broadcasts at the dmz directed at north korea. this in response to pyongyang's claim it detonated a hydrogen bomb this week. the south has also increased its military defensive posture. the north has at times reacted to these broadcasts with artillery fire. at least 50 people are dead in a truck bombing in western libya. the town's mayor says the vehicle plowed into a group of about 400 people at a police training center and then exploded. authorities say they don't know yet who's behind it. new video and pictures from syria are disturbing and they're reminding people of world war ii concentration camps. the images we'll show you are

graphic. they're important to understand the crisis and what people left behind and cut off are going through. they show victims of starvation in the town of madaya which has been under siege for four months. soon a u.n. convoy will bring needed food and supplies. here's cnn's arwa damon. >> reporter: the children of madaya are starving, the voice begs. the babies eyes seeming to echo that desperate plea for help. a little boy says he hasn't had a real meal in seven days. and this baby, according to the video, has not had milk in a month. cnn cannot independently verify these accounts or the images emerging from the town of madaya. under siege by regime forces and their allies since july, but the last time aid reached the area was in october, and even then the icrc says they saw hunger in the eyes of its residents.

doctors without borders says 23 patients in the center they support have died of starvation, including six babies, but in the twisted reality of syria's war, it does have to get this grim for help to arrive. the u.n. said that the syrian government has agreed to allow aid convoys into madaya and two other towns also under siege. >> this is an area that's completely besieged and covered by mountains in the snow. the little food that gets in is extremely expensive. we expect also that irreversible damage to some of these children who have witnessed some of the worst weapons of war, which is starving them. >> reporter: syria's cruel and harsh war now into its fifth year has seen scenes like this before and worse. these stills are being circulated by activists set to show children eating leaves, and

it's hardly the only portion of the population severely suffering from the war. hardly the only atrocity. arwa damon, cnn, istanbul. >> heartbreaking images there from syria. if you want to know how you can be of assistance, you can log on always to our special impact your world website. that's at cnn.com/impact. you'll find links to groups working to help those devastated by the war, including those who have been driven from their homes by violence. you can learn more at cnn.com/impact. saudi arabia says it will investigate claims that its war planes launched an intentional strike on iran's embassy in yemen. the accusation comes from iran which says the building was damaged and several embassy personnel wounded. cnn cannot independently confirm the embassy was hit. residents in the area reported a small explosion but no obvious

airstrike. tensions between the two countries escalated when saudi arabia announced that it executed 47 people last week including shiite cleric nimr al nimr. cnn's nic robertson met exclusively with nimr's brother on what's happening. robertson said visiting him in their hometown there required heavy security as you'll see. >> reporter: the police tell us it's not safe for us to drive in here by ourselves. they're bringing us in in one of their armored personnel carriers. >> so nick will have more and he'll join us live in the next hour with more of his exclusive report. we invite you to watch. we are learning more about the series of assaults on women in cologne, germany, during new year's eve celebrations. german media reporting that groups of men prevented police

from reaching people crying out for help that night and those men threatened anyone who might try to identify them. one man is cited as saying, quote, i'm syrian, you have to be nice to me. ms. merkel has invited me, end quote. that comes from an internal federal police report obtained by german media. authorities have not confirmed the identity of the suspects to cnn, but the assaults have fueled a political firestorm over immigration and victims' rights in germany. here's cnn's michael holmes. >> reporter: in germany angry demonstrators take to the streets to protest violence against women as police face mounting pressure for the handling of numerous reports of sexual assaults during cologne's new year's eve celebration. german chancellor angela merkel finally speaks out. >> translator: what happened at

new year is completely unacceptable. those are despicable acts which the state will not accept, including germany. that's why an intensive investigation by the relevant institutions is underway. this investigation must be supported. the feeling women had in this case of being completely defenseless and at mercy is for me personally intolerable. >> reporter: they received more than 100 criminal complaints from women who said they had been sexually assaulted or robbed by gangs of men of arab or north african descent outside the main train station. >> translator: the men surrounded us and started to grab our behinds and touch our crotches. they touched us everywhere. i wanted to take my friend and leave. i turned around and in that moment someone grabbed my bag. >> reporter: victims say there wasn't enough security at the event and felt they had no one to help them. >> translator: we ran to the police, but we saw the police were so understaffed. they couldn't take care of us

and we as women suffered the price. >> reporter: police continued to go through large amounts of cell phone footage from that evening saying they've identified several suspects but have made no arrests. germans are furious with cologne's mayor who suggested women protect themselves from men on the street by keeping them at arm's length. german media has also been criticized for their failure to initially report the story. and german broadcasters apologized on facebook for not reporting the story earlier. a country already overwhelmed with the influx of more than 1 million refugees now dealing with fear and anger as the search for the perpetrators continues. michael holmes, cnn. in just a moment here, air pollution levels in new delhi are spiking to a dangerous level, and cnn is there. >> reporter: pollution levels have increased to hazardous

levels, natalie. more on that after the break from the city with the world's most toxic air. phil! oh no... (under his breath) hey man! hey peter. (unenthusiastic) oh... ha ha ha! joanne? is that you? it's me... you don't look a day over 70. am i right? jingle jingle. if you're peter pan, you stay young forever. it's what you do. if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. ♪ you make me feel so young... it's what you do. ♪ you make me feel ♪ so spring has sprung.

in india a dense fog has taken over the city of new delhi spiking pollution to dangerous levels. look at that. and also disrupting traffic in the process among other problems. we're joined live from new delhi. i'm used to toss to go live reports from beijing and seeing backgrounds like we've seen. now it's new delhi. what can you tell us about this? >> reporter: that's right, natalie. visibility has improved quite a bit because it is midday now, but early this morning when we woke up there was an incredibly dense fog. certainly the worst we've seen all winter. trains have been canceled, some of them delayed. flights as well. the pm 2.5 levels here, that's the metric to use to measure the

pollutants, the smallest microscopic particles in the air which is said to be the most damaging to the lungs. that was at around 500 this morning. currently it's around 400. that's 15 times worse than what the w.h.o. deems is acceptable, safe. just out of curiosity, we were checking out how bad it is in beijing and it was around 60. 60 in beijing, around 400 to 500 here. and this is all happening as they're experimenting with a new scheme here called the odd/even scheme basically since january 1st allowing private cars to travel on alternate days depending on the last number of their license plate. so congestion has decreased significantly over the past few days, but pollution levels, as we've just seen this morning, that obviously has not been affected. that's because cars are not made to contribute to the pollution

here. there's power plants just outside of delhi. there's tens of thousands of trucks that come into delhi every day. there's farm land outside of delhi, acres and acres of that burned every year in the wintertime to make way for new farm land. so there's a number of contributors to the pollution here. many people here are starting to say that if the government is serious about tackling pollution here, then they have to look at all of these other issues as well. natalie. >> yeah, that's interesting you just said that because i was thinking that in china, a country with such a mass population like india, there's not really a collective environmental force. people don't have access to the courts to effect change. is there a growing voice, a collective voice with power there to speak out and have something done perhaps about environmental issues?

>> reporter: well, the levels here are not close to where it is in beijing. it has improved significantly over the past year. there's a huge media campaign on the local channels here, tv channels and also the newspapers here are -- have come out with and also people are talking about these issues a lot more, but certainly nowhere close to delhi. just a few years ago, natalie, when we saw this kind of air or certainly what we saw this morning in the wintertime most people would say this is just winter fog. they would say this is desert wind, desert dust from the deserts nearby, so people were almost in a denial here. they weren't really aware that this is actually pollution. it is hard to -- it is hard to distinguish between what is fog and what is smog, but there is certainly increasing awareness here. there's the massive campaigns here and also the government has come up with all of these new

initiativ initiatives, including the one we were just talking about, like the odd/even scheme, natalie. >> we hope they start to work there. thanks so much for bringing us the latest on that situation. live in new delhi. well, there is smoke in australia caused by fire, and firefighters are working to tackle a huge fire burning south of perth. flames have destroyed nearly 100 buildings so far in the small town of yarluke. there are no mandatory evacuations, but officials are urging people to leave or to actively defend their properties. of course, we saw many luxury homes burn to the ground a couple of weeks ago in another area. let's check in with allyson. she is following this story for us from the international weather center. hello. >> hello, natalie. you should feel for these people because it doubled overnight. didn't give them much time to gather their belongings and get

out of town. here is the city of perth on the northern end. you can see there are some bush fires. the majority, largest cluster is well south to that area. here is the city that we were talking about. again, look at the immense area that we are noticing a lot of these bush fires. again, they doubled in size just overnight. we did get word that a few firefighters were actually treated for burns as they were battling these fires. that caused 7,000 folks to be without power along these other areas. one of the other more populated areas is maruni. you can see the buildings and homes that are in this area. it is hitting areas that are fairly populated. one other story to talk about is a little bit farther north and east of this area. here you can see the blue shaded areas. the light blue was above average rain that they had for december. the dark blue was record amounts of rain, so we've been dealing

with the bush fires in the far western side and also some wildfires over on the eastern side, but the central portion of the country has been dealing with immense amounts of rain. the reason this is very important is because the basin that sits underneath all of these rivers and streams in this area, they all end up flowing into this area called lake eyre. not very big on a normal basis. january of last year this is the lake right here in blue. fast forward to december just about a month ago. you can see it growing. this month on january 8th, all of that record rain that happened in the northern end of australia eventually flows back into this. notice how large the lake is now. the reason for that is all of those rains that had been out there. again, some of the imagery coming out of these areas. you can see some of the ariels showing this. when the lake is full it ends up

becoming, natalie, the largest lake they have in australia, but it only happens about four times every century. so, again, it's a rarity, and they're actually hoping this may boost the tourism business in this area. >> well, nice to end on a positive for sure. allyson, thank you. brittain is celebrating the best in film and television. the bafta nominations are just in this past hour, and we'll tell you which stars and movies got the nod. nod..

big news about the silver springs television of arts has announced the bafta awards. the best of movies in 2015. nominations for best film are "the big short." , "bridge of spies," "carol," "the revenant," and "spotlight." >> in the leading actress category, the nominees. there's a name we never see, ha spgs ha, cate blanchette, a

looesh sha vlander. nominated for leading actor, leonardo dicaprio. from the "steve jobs" movie, matt damon. winners will be announced at london's royal opera house february 14th, valentine's day. joining me now from our london bureau is film critic richard fi fitzwilliams. richard, you were telling me they really spread it out here with who made the list. >> reporter: they've spread it out extremely well. this is about as perfect a list as i've ever seen of nominees. by that i don't mean that i agree with most of them, which i do, it's just the way that with several themes this year, several movies, prominent movies set in the 1950s, others with

themes of sexuality, very, very high standard, what they seem to be aiming at is the possibility of giving a bafta in the major categories to prominent individuals who have never previously won, for example, leonardo dicaprio for best actor. it seems likely in "revernant." this is what i would put the bet on though eddie redmain and "the ma martian" has a chance. too close to call between bri larsson's perfect performance and sausa roman as a young girl whose coming of age, adolescence we see examined in brooklyn.

there are some wonderful performances here. >> right. because you were saying even though cate blanchette, you don't think she is one of the top contenders in the leading actress category? >> she's won three bafta's already and she's superb in "carol" but in that i would say judy morrow would win the best supporting actress of the lesbian lover set in the 1950s. amy is the best winner of the best documentary of the sad life of amy wyanhouse and also "inside out" best nomination. what we have are best close races for supporting actors.

too close to call as well, but i notice rather interesting to see "the big short" comment about the financial crisis appeared to be very, very popular. what i was surprised was charlotte's absence. tom mccarthy didn't get a nod for best director for "spotlight" which could. a brilliant film. could win best picture. that is a surprise. >> so you made me feel like a real loser because i think i've seen two of the films that you just ran through right here. if we want to get out there, i've only got ten seconds left, two films, what are two you'd say we've got to go see? >> you must forgive me but i'm going to make it four. the brilliant "spotlight," u

pers superb story. "the revenant." powerful story "carol" and "bridge of spies." >> we're out of time. thank you so much for joining us, richard fitzwilliams. thank you all for joining "cnn newsroom." i'm natalie allen. . .

imagineary fiction. president obama slamming opponents in the town hall debate. did he make his case for gun violence? south korea taking the

serious actions after the north korean government tested a hydrogen bomb. and a knife wielding man is killed outside the police station. is this the new normal for france? welcome to "early start." i'm christine romans. >> i'm alison kosik. it is friday, january 8th. >> face-to-face in a town hall last night. the president answering questions from a rape survivor and sheriff and widow who all oppose his executive actions on gun violence this week. the president pushed back that he wants to take guns away from law abiding citizens. the president took questions from people who agree with his plan to expand background checks. among them, mark kelly, the

husband of former congress member gabby giffords. >> the president's campaign for gun safety continues in this morning's "new york times." he says this, quote, i will not campaign for, vote for or support any candidate, even in my party who does not support common sense gun reform. all of the democrats running for the white house support stricter gun laws. the statement seems aimed at democrats running for tight races in congress who may want the president's support. for the latest, let's bring in jim acosta. >> reporter: christine and alison, president obama praised critics at the town hall last night. supporters told the president the executive actions aimed at expanding the background checks could prevent law abiding citizens from buying firearms. the president went off on the

nation's top gun lobby nra. accusing the organization to skip the town hall to continue to mislead gun owners. he blamed the nra for skyrocketing gun sales. >> our position is mischaracterized. there's a reason why the nra is not here. they are just down the street. since this is the main reason they exist, you would think they would be prepared to have a debate. >> reporter: the president insisted he supports the right to bear arms. the president recounted his meeting with the family members of the children killed in sandy hook. saying it was the only time he saw the secret service cry on duty. >> one question last night came from taya kyle. the wife of chris kyle. she said she wants the freedom

to carry whatever weapon she chooses. she said tighter regulations won't stop criminals from getting guns. the president stopped to the proposal is akin to adding seatbelts to cars gradually increasing safety. >> you will be able to purchase a firearm. some criminals will get their hands on firearms even if there is a background check. somebody may lie on a form. somebody will intend to commit a crime, but don't have a record on the background checks system. there is a way for a responsible gun owner who i'm assuming given your husband and your family is a much better marksman than i am, can have a firearm to protect yourself. but where it is much harder for somebody to fill up a car with

guns and sell them to 13-year-old kids on the streets. >> the president thanked taya kyle and her husband for their service. the town hall on guns came ours after of a new cnn poll appeared showing most americans support the president's plan. 2/3 of republicans say they favor executive orders increasing the reach of background checks and improving existing laws. many are skeptical the proposal will have any effect. less than half think it will reduce gun related deaths. many oppose the way the president is making the changes. more than half disapprove of using executive actions to tighten regulatioregulations.

donald trump was promising to get rid of some in a rally in burlington, vermont. promising to get rid of gun free zones in schools. he called gun free zones bait for sickos with weapons. >> we need our guns. we need the guns. whether we like it or not. we need our guns. >> burlington is bernie sanders territory. vermont is the state he represented in the senate. he was once mayor of burlington itself. it was challenging turf for a trump event. jeff zeleny has more. >> reporter: the rally in burlington topped most of them. throughout the evening, he was interrupted by protesters. many wearing bernie sanders shirts. take a listen to some of the action. >> this is not vermont! trump ruins vermont. >> get trump out!

>> reporter: it was clear as the evening went on, donald trump was agitated how long it took security to remove the protesters. >> okay, security, move a little faster please. thank you, security. get them out of here. >> reporter: after most of the protesters left, donald trump talked about guns. he said he is against gun free zones in america. from here, donald trump goes to south carolina on friday for another rally. he kicks up campaigning in iowa over the weekend. christine and alison. >> jeff, thank you for that. ted cruz defending himself against questions about his eligibility to be president. john mccain has joined donald trump saying the birth in canada to an american mother makes it uncertain he can run for president. he brings up the issue because the arizona senator plans to endorse marco rubio.

a spokesperson says mccain is not endorsing anybody at this stage. bill clinton on the campaign trail in in iowa. he spoke to hundreds at the slovak museum. he told the crowd you never will have a chance to vote for a better candidate. hillary clinton expected to pick up an endorsement from planned parenthood. a formal announcement in manchester on sunday. tensions on the korean peninsula. south korea heightening the defensive posture near the border with the north and increasing cyber security defense following the north's claim it tested an h-bomb. also overnight, south korea renewed the propaganda broadcast blasting messages across the demilitarized zone. it is something the north regards as an act of war. let's turn to paula hancocks live in seoul. good morning, paula.

>> reporter: good morning, alison. seoul knows this angers pyongyang. the south koreans used the loud speakers many times in the past. every time, pyongyang has become annoyed by them. they know there is a chance there could be repercussions that could be a response back in the summer of last year, there was a violent response when they were broadcasting music and k-pop and news reports and also messages that the regime is lying to the people of north korea. when they did this, north korean soldiers fired upon the loud speakers. this is why we have the increase in security. they are well aware how angry north korea gets from the loud speakers. they are adjusting the stance accordingly. the cyber security increased. south korea has seen north korea attack them online in the past. they really are preparing

themselves for any eventually. they say this will be one part of their response to wednesday's north korean nuclear test. alison. >> as things get more and more tense between north and south, how concerned is the south that this tension can certainly escalate into something bigger? >> reporter: well, there is an awareness that could happen. that is why they heightened the security. we have seen it before. it is not certain what the north korean's reaction will be. south koreans are working with allies and united states to push through substantive anxiouses in the united nations. this is just one track of many tracks that south korea is trying to pursue. what they want to see are sanctions to bite and be able to

slowdown their nuclear ambitions. as this point, although it is heavily sanctioned, they are still progressing. >> paula, thanks. 11 minutes after the hour. the dow makes history. posting its worst four-day start to a year ever. the dow dropped 392 points thursday. down 5% for the year. both the dow and nasdaq now officially in a correction. that means this is the 10% drop from the highs last summer. the s&p 500 still has a way go before it is officially a correction. let's show you what it looks like right now. futures right now are higher. markets in europe up as well. asia finished mixed. you have not seen a continuation of the violent fearful selling in stocks that really just spread around the world this week. china as ditched the so-called circuit breakers. the speed bump which halted

trading twice this week. this move was meant to calm investors down after a steep drop. it added to the uncertainty around the globe. analysts are not happy with the move. regulators, chinese regulators don't have a clear plan for how to shore up the market there. watching green arrows this morning and hoping by the end of the week, we will not have so much violent selling. job support, by the way, in four hours and 18 minutes. we could have a big piece of information. increased security in paris after a knife wielding man is shot outside the police station in paris. is the french security prepared for lone style terror attacks?

there is high anxiety in france after french authorities thwart another act of terrorism. a man brandishing a meat cleaver attempting to enter a police

station as the country was marking the anniversary of the "charlie hebdo" attacks. we were learning more about the apparent lone wolf with a printout of the isis flag. let's get more now from cnn's erin mclaughlin live in paris. er erin, what are the authorities learning about the suspect? could he be part of a bigger terror attack? >> reporter: good morning, alison. authorities have yet to release the identity or yet to make it public of the man accused of yesterday's attack. as you say, we are learning more about his background. authorities are saying that they were aware of his criminal past. he had a criminal history, but what they weren't aware of or had any record of is any past links to extremists or extremist ideology. the justice minister yesterday saying the piece of paper found on his body that had the isis flag on it, well, authorities are still working to determine

whether or not that in fact indicates a link to isis ideology or an indication that he was mentally disabled. authorities are trying to work out the motives behind yesterday's attack. it appears they are looking at it as a lone wolf style attack. it illustrates the problem facing french authorities. not only are authorities trying to stop or any potential attacks that could happen such as the ones that happened in november, but looking what to do about lone wolves. big problem here. christine and alison. >> erin, thank you. >> joining us to talk more about this is harris farrik. he joins us from london. the timing of the attack, harris, was frightening. almost at the moment of the one-year anniversary of the "charlie hebdo" attack which was the moment when france changed,

i think. when france really changed and had to confront this reality within its borders. let's talk about this particular attack. meat cleaver. a fake suicide bomb. a printed out isis flag. it sounds as though this is an isis inspired event. not an isis organized event. >> absolutely. first of all, we can determine a few things from the actions that he had yesterday. the belt that he was wearing, the suicide belt he was wearing was a fake suicide belt. it is clear he wanted people to know he was wearing the belt. he was trying to die as a martyr. he was trying to commit as much damage and take as many people with him. we know this particular person has a criminal past and we also know that isis online and isis

people who are operating within the communities offer people quick redemption. people who are vulnerable and maybe homeless. offer them quick redemption in the afterlife for any acts of so-called sins they may have done while they were alive. it looks as they somebody was inspired. i actually don't like the word "lone wolf" because it implies he was acting on his own entirely. we prefer the term self starter. it is common because in nearly all the cases we observed, the people that actually carry out the attacks that were inspired by isis or al qaeda in the past, have a network of support around them either in the online world and in many cases in the offline world as well. >> the french government is currently monitoring thousands of people with suspected ties to

terrorism. is there any way to know ahead of time when someone is going to, by themselves, possibly commit an act of terrorism? >> i think we have to look at problems monitoring resources take on agencies. to monitor somebody for 24 hours a day, it takes an average 20 people to do that. that's just to monitor one person. it is not only possible to monitor every single person who may well be thinking of carrying out an attack. what france doesn't have is a deradicalization program and effective counselling program. that is where france should focus a lot of its energy on is making sure there is effective and alternative counter narratives and messages to people who may be looking for an identity and looking for a

cause. and isil is providing this cause. the counter narratives are more important right now than actually making sure that every single person is monitored. that's impossible to do. >> that's a really interesting perspective. especially when you look at in this case what appears to be a criminal history and background. we have seen that again and again. we have seen young men, criminals on wrong side of the law. somehow in the prison system or in the criminal system, find this meaning. the jihadi narrative is resonating with the homeless and aimness. that is what france needs to focus on. >> absolutely. the narrative and ideology. islamism. that is why the point you made is important. quite often these people are not

religious. islamism is a ideology, rather than a faith or tenanents of th faith. using the same techniques providing people who are looking for an identity or cause or looking for solutions to their problems they may be facing in day-to-day life. charasmatic recruiting. >> hasar, thank you. a local sheriff meets with protesters occupying federal land. will this situation be resolved soon? will it be with peace or force? t medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses,

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two iraqi refugees living in the u.s. are in federal custody this morning. facing terrorism related charges. one in houston and one in sacramento. they do not appear to be related. the texas man is charged with trying to charge material support to isis. both accused of lying to immigration officials about alleged ties to terror groups. officials say there was an arrest to milwaukee related to the suspects. a woman attacks several passengers aboard a united express flight from new york to chicago forcing a landing in detroit. it is not clear what set the woman off, but other passengers worked to restrain her as the flight with four crew and 69

passengers made the diversion. in oregon, sheriff plans to meet again with the protesters today trying to peacefully resolve the armed occupation of the building on the wildlife refuge. david ward, the sheriff, meet with the group thursday and offered them safe passage out of the county, but ammon bundy refused. the group took over the building. they are protesting federal land use rules. the governor of maine is under fire for racially charged comments during a town hall event this week while discussing the drug epidemic. the governor described how the state is going after drug traffickers. >> these aren't people who take drugs. these are d-money, shifty, smooth money. these guys that come from connecticut, new york. they come up here. they sell their heroin, then

they go back home. incidentally, half the time they i impregnate a young white girl, then we have another issue down the road. >> he is talking about the emotional cost of kids born of the involvement of drug traffickers. president obama talking about gun violence in a live town hall. did he convince law an abiding americans, no he doesn't want to take your guns away?

president obama making the case for gun control in a live cnn town hall last night. did he convince opponents it is time for a change. south korea begins to

broadcast propaganda across the border as north korea tested an h-bomb. how is the country coping after the police killed a knife wielding man on the anniversary of the "charlie hebdo" attack. i'm alison kosik in for john berman. >> big morning. i'm christine romans. 32 minutes past the hour. >> president obama taking on gun control opponents at a town hall last night right near on cnn. the president answering questions from a gun executive and sheriff and rape survivor and widow who oppose actions on gun violence that were announced this week. the president pushed back against the claim he wants to take guns away from law abiding americans when he called an imagineary fiction. mark kelly, the husband of gabby

giffords, who was wounded in a gravely shooting. >> and the election season op-ed, he writes, i will not campaign for or support for any candidate in my party who does not support common sense gun reform. all the democrats running for the white house support stricter gun laws. so the statement seems aimed at democrats running in tight races for congress who might want the president's support. for the latest, let's bring in jim acosta. >> reporter: christine and alison, president obama confronted critics at the cnn town hall. the president told reporters the executive actions aimed at expanding the background checks could prevent people from buying firearms. the president said it will not interfere with the rights. he went off on the nra accusing the group of skipping the town

hall to continue to mislead gun owners about his record. here's what he had to say. >> our position is consistently mischaracterized. by the way, there's a reason why the nra's not here. they're just down the street. and since this is the main reason they exist, you would think they would be prepared to have a debate with the president. >> reporter: the president insisted he supports the right to bear arms and the second amendment. he recounted his meeting with the family members of the children killed in the sandy hook shooting three years ago. adding it was the only time he saw the secret service cry on duty. >> thank you, jim. the nra last night responded to president obama on twitter. explaining why they won't sit down with him to talk gun control. they tweeted the president quote doesn't want an intellectually policy discussion.

he wanted nra to be an audience member at his pr stunt. no thanks. the group said the president's background check plan is a de distraction from the plan he cannot keep us safe. taya kyle, the wife of chris kyle, she said she wants the freedom to carry whatever weapon she chooses and tighter regulations will not stop criminals from getting guns. the president said this is akin to adding seatbelts to cars. this is gradually increasing safety without burdening gun owners. >> you will be able to purchase a firearm. some criminals will get their hands on firearms even if there is a background check. somebody may lie on a form. somebody will intend to commit a crime, but don't have a record that shows up on the background check system. there is a way for us to set up

a system where you, a responsible gun owner, who, i'm assuming, given your husband and family, is a much better marksman than i am, can have a firearm to protect yourself. but where it is much harder for somebody to fill up a car with guns and sell them to 13-year-old kids on the streets. >> the president thanked taya kyle and her husband for their service to their country. the town hall on guns came hours after a cnn poll shows most americans support the president's plan. 2/3 including a majority of republicans say they favor his executive orders, increasing the reach of background checks and improving enforcement of existing laws. many are skeptical the proposal will have any effect. less than half think it will reduce gun related deaths.

many oppose the way the president is making the changes. more than half disapprove executive actions to tighten gun control regulation. the president was makes his case for tightening gun restrictions for more gun safety, donald trump was promising to get rid of some restrictions. at a rally in burlington, vermont, trump vowed to get rid of gun free zones in schools and on military bases. he called gun free zones bait for sickos with weapons. >> we need our guns. we need the guns. whether we like it or not. we need our guns. >> burlington, of course, is bernie sanders' territory. it is not just the state he represents in the senate, but he was mayor of burlington. it made it challenging for a trump event. jeff zeleny has more. >> reporter: trump is used to

loud rallies. the one in burlington, vermont topped most of them. he was interrupted by protesters again and again by people wearing bernie sanders shirts. take a look at some of the action. >> this is not trump vermont. trump ruins vermont. >> get trump out! get trump out! >> reporter: it was clear as the evening went along, trump was agitated by how long it was taking surety to remoecurity to protesters. >> okay, security, move a little faster. okay. get them out of here. >> reporter: after most of the protesters left, trump said he is against a gun free zone in america. he delivered sharp equips. from here, he goes to south

carolina for another rally. christine and alison. >> jeff, thanks for that. ted cruz defending himself about questions of his eligibility. john mccain has joined donald trump saying that cruz's birth in canada to an american mother makes it uncertain whether he can run for president. cruz says mccain is bringing up the issue because the arizona senator plans to endorse rubio. this morning, cruz's marathon bus tour of iowa enters its fifth day. bill clinton on the campaign trail for hillary. he spoke to hundreds of people at the national-slovak museum and library. he said you will never have a chance to vote for a better candidate. hillary clinton expected to pick up an endorsement from planned parenthood. the formal announcement set in manchester, new hampshire on sunday. breaking news. tensions on on the korean

peninsula ratcheting up. south korea heightening its defensive posture with the north and increasing the security defense following the north's claim of it testing an h-bomb. the south blasting messages across the demilitarized zone on loud speakers. it is something the north regards as an act of war. let's go to cnn's will ripley. tell us what you learned. >> reporter: we actually toured a science center in pyongyang, alison. where you go to learn about the technology north korea claims was used in the h-bomb that was detonated a couple days ago. it took the world by surprise and south korea by surprise. that's why you are seeing them

taking this action playing the loud speakers. here in pyongyang, no official response yet to the action. we do know over the summer when south korea turned on the loud speakers after two soldiers injured in a pair of land mine lasts. south korea became a very tense situation along the demilitarized zone. almost to the brink of a greater conflict before they were able to talk and calm things down. north korea could be expecting some retribution as a result of the nuclear test. i met with officials last night who said they are not afraid of more sanctions from the united states. the u.s. legislature will talk about the possibility of more sanctions. the north koreans told me bring it. they have been living under crippling sanctions for so many years, they will tighten their

belts and ticontinue aggressive with the nuclear program which is their only defense against the u.s. >> thank you, will. interesting that access that will is having. 42 minutes past the hour. let's get an early start on the money. dow futures higher. the average is coming off the worst four-day start to any year. markets in europe posting gains. asia finished mixed. some of the optimism or relief coming after china ditched its circuit breaker rules which halted trading twice this week after big declines. if investors don't have enough to worry about, a jobs report later this morning. here is what cnn's money survey forecasts. 212,000 new jobs in december. unemployment rate expected to stay at 5%. alison, we are looking at wage growth. looking to see that tick up to 2.6% year over year. if that holds, it is great year

for hiring. the economy has added 2.2 million jobs from 2015. >> hopefully that is the distraction investors need. >> a friday tonic. paris on edge this morning after a shooting outside a police station on the anniversary of the "charlie hebdo" terror attack. how is this city increasing security this morning?

we have some breaking news this morning. new information about the november paris terror attacks. prosecutors in belgium revealing that the fingerprints of paris attack fugitive salah abdeslam were found in a brussels apartment. all this after the paris attack on the police station. on that, a man attempted to enter the police station at the

moment the country was marking the anniversary of the "charlie hebdo" attacks a year earlier. let's get more from cnn's erin mclaughlin live in paris. erin, tell us about the information. >> reporter: christine, we are getting new information about the search for france's most wanted man. salah abdeslam. known as the eighth paris attacker. this time coming from the brussels prosecutor's office. on november 10th, authorities searched a house in brussels. what they found was alarming. material used to fabricate explosives. traces of tatp, which is an explosive. three hand made belts used to transport explosives and a fingerprint from salah abdeslam himself. the apartment, they say, was rented under a false identity, but might have been rented by a

person already in custody. so what is not apparent from the statement given by the prosecutor this morning is the date of those fingerprints. very critical because brussels is the last known location of salah abdeslam. some were the fingerprints left prior to the attacks or after the attacks? something the authorities are trying to work out as i speak. this as authorities here in paris are working to get more information on the man behind the alleged attack from yesterday. authorities treating that incident as a loan wolf style attack. christine. >> do they know who that man is in that event yesterday and they are not releasing it yet? >> reporter: it seems they do, christine. at the moment, no formal public announcement revealing that man's identity. they are saying, though, that they believe he had a criminal background. they are also saying that they are working to determine whether or not the piece of paper found

on his body, which was of an isis flag which indicates he has ties to isis on mentally ill. they had no history of the man with any connections to extremism. at the moment, they are treating it as a loe lone style attack. that is concerning to authorities. how do you predict and how do you stop those attacks? >> erin mclaughlin in paris. thank you. the feud with iran and saudi arabia taking a new turn. that is fighting houthi rebels in yemen. cnn international editor nic robertson is tracking the latest from riyadh, saudi arabia. >> reporter: good morning, alison. saudis are pushing back on that. they are saying in the past few months, houthi have misfired three bombs.

two in the capital and one elsewhere in the country. they say this was another case of that. that the houthi lack capacity and that the bomb that apparently fell on the iranian embassy was in fact a houthi weapon. it is hard to get substantive details and the chance of getting independent witnesses to get samples of whatever missile or bomb fell is remote and unlikely. we understand the street in the capital there where the iranian embassy is, is cordoned off. the iranians, cause for their part, have ever reason to make the allegation that the saudis bombed the embassy. they are making a huge issue over the iranians torched their embassy last weekend following the execution of the shi'a cleric, alison. >> we are seeing this at the

embassy in yemen enflaming the tensions with the rivals. what will it take to ratchet down the tension that ramped up since the execution last weekend? >> reporter: quite a few countries coming behind saudi arabia. cutting diplomatic tie was iran. somali was one and djouboti is another. the saudis are saying iran is interfering in the domestic affairs and iran is saying you are making a bigger issue out of there. you have bigger problems and you want to divert tension. a lot of international pressure to step back. iran saying stop interfering in our affairs. what does that look like and what will it on the ground? that is hard to make certain. we will see heightened tension

before we see this settle back to where the relations normally are. alison. >> cnn's nick roberts robertson you. do not panic with a preview of your money and what we are expecting next.

two iraqi refugees living in the u.s. are in federal custody this morning. they face terrorism related charges. one arrest in houston, the other in sacramento. they don't appear to be related. the texas man is charged with trying to provide material support to isis. both accused of lying to immigration officials about alleged ties to terror groups. officials say there were arrests in milwaukee related to one of

the suspects. an oregon sheriff plans to meet with protesters again today trying to peacefully resolve the armed occupation on the wildlife refuge. sheriff david ward offered safe passage out of the county, but ammon bundy refused. the group took over the building last week over abuse of land use rules. the texas state trooper charged with perjury in the case of sandra bland's death is in custody. brian encinia turned himself in yesterday afternoon. sandra bland was found hanged in her cell three days after being arrested by encinia. he claimed she was combative during the traffic stop. tonya couch, the mother of

the affluenza teen is jailed in texas. she is scheduled for arranrraigt this morning. the two fled to mexico after the teen violated probation in a drunk driving crash that killed four people. ethan couch is still in mexico fighting deportation. a new york corrections officer accused of helping two convicted killers escape due in court this morning. gene palmer. he was the courier joyce mitchell used to deliver hamburger meat to richard matt and david sweat. the 57-year-old palmer is accused of providing other tools to the inmates in exchange for matt's art work. the party is already on in hollywood. leading up to the 73rd golden globes on sunday. ricky gervais returns as host.

the globes is a barometer for the academy awards. among the films competing "spotlight" and "carol." then "the martian" and "big short." let's get an early start on your money. point to an open higher for stock futures. the dow has lost more than 900 points in the past four sessions. that makes it the worst start to a year for the dow ever. markets in asia finished mixed. that is a relief after a big horrible week. one factor that could move the market today, the u.s. jobs report comes out an hour before the opening bell. despite the market turmoil, now is not the time to panic. it is never good to panic. about 50% of americans have

exposure to the stock market. if you are one of them, relax. the u.s. economy is in good shape. major downturns usually happen when the economy is struggling. staying in stocks pays off. since world war ii, investors who stayed in stocks for 15 years made money. at the start of this year or major market move is a time to check investments. make sure you are diversified and appropriate risk for your age. the older you are, you should have 100% stocks. another money move you should not make, stocking up on powerball tickets. bad retirement planning. guess what? it is a sure bet no one wi will listen to me. the jackpot for saturday is a record $700 million. that is $428.4 million after taxes. those numbers will likely rise as people rush to buy tickets.

the biggest lottery jackpot in history. let me remind you your chances of winning. 1 in 292 million. >> you are telling me you will not buy one powerball ticket? >> i asked john berman if he wanted to go in on an office pool. he has done stories about the lawyers who litigate office pools. "early start" continues right now. imaginary fiction. president obama in the live town hall. did he make his case for tighter regulations of guns and convince law abiding americans he will not take your guns an away. south korea taking actions against north korea after the regime claims it tested a hydrogen bomb. new terror fears in paris this morning.