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Iraqi Troops Retake Ramadi from ISIS; Bill Clinton Joining Hillary on the Campaign Trail; Americans Disapprove of Handling of ISIS, Says Polls; Mexican Authorities Captured Affluenza Teen; No Charges on Police Shooting of Tamir Rice; Severe Weather Across Sourthern US; Ramadi Liberated from ISIS Control; Air Pollution in China Examined; Fighting Bullying. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired December 29, 2015 - 01:00   ET

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


[01:00:11] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles.

Ahead this hour, Iraqi troops raising their flag and claiming victory in Ramadi, but does this give them any momentum against ISIS?

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton set to hit the campaign trail for Hillary. But could this hurt more than help his wife's run for the White House?

Plus the deadly monster storm that swept across Texas as millions more deal with extreme weather all over the country.

Hello, everybody. Great to have you with us. We'd like to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm John Vause. Another hour of NEWSROOM L.A. begins now.

We'll start with a major blow against ISIS. Iraqi forces say they have recaptured the city of Ramadi. ISIS had controlled this strategic city west of Baghdad for almost seven months. It was a scene of brutal house-to-house fighting in the last few days. And now Iraqi troops have raised their flags in the city center and declared victory. Some pockets of ISIS fighters remain and a military spokesman says it may take up to three weeks to push them all out.

As Iraqi troops celebrates their first major win against ISIS, the country's leaders are vowing to fight on to other terrorist strongholds.

Nima Elbagir looks now at the capture of Ramadi.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Declaring victory in Ramadi. Video broadcasts by Iraqi State TV shows soldiers raising their national flag over the city's government compound, celebrating the Iraqi military's first major victory over the so- called Islamic state.

YAHYA RASOUL, IRAQI MILITARY SPOKESMAN (Through Translator): Ramadi has been freed and the armed forces and the antiterrorist group, and also we've raised our flag on the government's building in al-Anbar.

ELBAGIR: In May, ISIS fighters seized Ramadi capital of the mainly Sunni Anbar Province west of Baghdad, as the government troops fled in defeat. But U.S.-trained Iraqi Forces returned, launching an assault in the city last week, and making their final push to seize the century located government complex on Sunday.

Footage showed Iraqi troops advancing through Ramadi, street by street amid piles of rubble and collapsed houses.

Even amid the celebrations, Iraqi officials say government troops still need to clear some remaining pockets of insurgents in the city. Once secured, Ramadi will be handed over to local police, and the Sunni tribal force, a measure aimed at winning support from the local community. After that, Iraq's government has said their next target will be the northern city of Mosul.

With an estimated pre-war population of two million, Mosul is by far the largest population center controlled by ISIS, in either Iraq or Syria, and a crucial source of tax revenue. If it's retaken it will take down much of the infrastructure underpinning ISIS' claim to statehood.

Nima Elbagir, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: And a short time ago I spoke with the former Navy SEAL, Kevin Lacz, about what's next in the fight against ISIS in Iraq. He said while Ramadi is no longer under ISIS control there is still a lot of tough fight ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN LACZ, RETIRED NAVY SEAL: It's a very slow road. The winning of Tikrit took a couple of months to get the amenities of power and water and supply. You know, sticking a flag in the government center, Ramadi, doesn't mean that the city is won. It's a long, hard fight. It's an uphill fight. But it's a very positive fight.

You know, we've spent $25 billion propping up the Iraqi military and then promptly left in 2011. So having a couple thousand ground troops as advisers, and having the Iraqis win the fight against ISIS is a symbolic victory and it's a very positive sign.

But it's cautious optimism because, as we know, ISIS wants a caliphate. They want to own that territory and they want to lure in American forces on the ground to fight us in the open. But what we have is boots on the ground. And this is what it takes. It takes the Iraqi military to win that fight on the battlefield and show ISIS that they're not deterred; they're not afraid and they will press on, and with the help of advisers and the help of air power, we can help stymie that supply-line that leads to Syria and helps fuel that Western front, which ISIS partially controls.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Former Navy SEAL Kevin Lacz there speaking to me a short time ago.

And the retaking of Ramadi is a rare bright spot for the Obama administration in the battle against ISIS, but as Jim Acosta reports many Americans are losing faith in the president's strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the U.S.-led coalition at war with ISIS half a world away, President Obama just got a fresh reminder during his vacation in Hawaii Americans are worried the terrorists are winning the fight.

A new CNN-ORC poll shows Americans have lost confidence in the Obama administration's ability to defeat ISIS and prevent another terrorist attack, 64 percent disapprove of the president's handling of ISIS and just 51 percent of Americans believe the government can protect against a terrorist attack. Down sharply from 65 percent in 2010.

[01:05:15] That deep pessimism has frustrated the president.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm confident that we're going to prevail.

ACOSTA: But Mr. Obama wants Americans to feel that confidence. CNN has learned the White House has asked top officials across the government to do a better job of selling the ISIS plan.

OBAMA: I think that there's a legitimate criticism of what I have been doing and our administration has been doing in the sense that we haven't, you know, on a regular basis, I think, described all the work that we've been doing for more than a year now to defeat ISIL.

ACOSTA: And now the president may be able to point to some progress after Iraqi Security Forces, combined with the support of coalition airstrikes, apparently succeeded in driving ISIS out of the crucial city of Ramadi. Even Republicans in Congress are optimistic.

REP. WILL HURD (R), TEXAS: It seemed like a victory. We should proceed with caution. If we hold Ramadi, this is a good thing for our strategy in that region and against ISIS. And these are the types of things that we should be doing more.

ACOSTA: It could be a vindication of the president's cautious approach, of relying on Iraqi and Syrian forces instead of U.S. troops on the ground.

The latest CNN-ORC poll finds Americans are split right down the middle on whether to send ground troops to fight ISIS, which explains in part why the President is resistant to such a move. As he said last month, defending his ISIS strategy.

(On camera): Why can't we take out these bastards? OBAMA: Well, Jim, I just spent the last three questions answering that very question. We can retake territory, and as long as we leave troops there we can hold it, but that does not solve the underlying problem of eliminating the dynamics that are producing these kinds of violent extremist groups.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: President Obama there finishing that report by Jim Acosta.

We have one more set of numbers for you from our recent CNN-ORC poll. It's taken shortly before the Iraqi success in Ramadi. It shows most Americans are not at all pleased with the U.S. fight against terrorism. 74 percent said they are either not very satisfied, or not at all satisfied.

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is on the campaign trail in New Hampshire. He's sticking to that good old formula which has managed to get him so far, that is going after all of those around him. But more than usual, his main target recently has been Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. The currently front runner of their respective bodies which could make for an interesting showdown next year. Trump downplayed the idea that Mrs. Clinton would have the upper hand in any matchup.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We haven't started on her. You know, she says oh, we'd love to run against Trump. It's her worst nightmare.

These people back here they said well, the Hillary campaign said they would love to run, yes, she wants to run against me instead of somebody else. I guarantee you. You know, and I tried to explain to Chuck Todd and all these guys. You don't understand, Chuck, when they say they want to run against Trump that means they don't want to run against Trump. They don't understand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And Donald Trump is going beyond Hillary Clinton attacking former president Bill Clinton. Hillary recently announced that her husband, Bill, would be joining her on the campaign trail.

CNN's Randi Kaye looks at the pros and the cons of bringing him on board.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I have no confidence in my political feel anymore. I've just been out of it a long time.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Former president Bill Clinton downplaying his skills as a surrogate for his wife Hillary.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He was cool, calm, collected, he was kind of calibrating himself, and then he dropped a bomb. I don't know anything about politics, I'm out of it, and then he dropped another bomb. That kind of Bill Clinton will be a tremendous asset to Hillary Clinton.

KAYE: CNN political commentator Van Jones considers Bill Clinton one of the greatest defenders of his wife. Listen to him on CNN with Fareed Zakaria.

CLINTON: I have never seen so much expended on so little. The other party doesn't want to run against her and if they do, they'd like her as mangled up as possible.

JONES: He is a beloved figure. Period. He's one of the most popular politicians or political leaders on Planet Earth. You don't put somebody like that in a jar and hope they don't say anything. Will he make some mistakes? Sure.

KAYE: Mistakes like he made back in 2008. Early that year, the former president said this about then Senator Barack Obama's campaign.

BILL CLINTON: Give me a break. This whole thing is the biggest fairytale I've ever seen.

[01:10:02] KAYE: Only to explain later that he was talking about Obama's stance on the Iraq war, not Obama's quest to become the first black president.

Bill Clinton also compared Obama's South Carolina primary win to Jesse Jackson's successful campaign in the state years earlier, a comment that angered black voters who thought he was marginalizing Obama. Clinton tried to explain.

BILL CLINTON: I think that they played the race card on me. This was used out of context and twisted for political purposes by the Obama campaign to try to breed resentment elsewhere.

KAYE: After the interview, the former president thought his mike was off, then went on to say this.

BILL CLINTON: I don't think I should take any [EXPLETIVE DELETED] on that, do you?

KAYE: When a reporter asked him about his comments, the former president was the one pointing fingers.

BILL CLINTON: You always follow me around and play these little games, and I'm not going to play your games today. You have mischaracterized it to get another cheap story that averts the American people.

JONES: The reality is the black community forgave him 20 seconds later as soon as Obama won and since then he hasn't made those kind of mistakes.

KAYE (on camera): A March CNN-ORC poll shows Bill Clinton with 65 percent favorability. So why not put him on the trail sooner? Supporters say he takes all the oxygen out of the room and fear he could steal the spotlight from his wife. He tends to connect better with voters than she does and is tremendously popular, all advantages that even outweigh the possibility of him going rogue.

Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: CNN senior reporter for media and politics Dylan Byers is with me us for more on Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Billary, Donald Trump and all of it.

Let's start with Bill Clinton, though, because, you know, he remains very popular not just with Democrats but with American voters in general. Does that translate into support directly for Hillary Clinton because it didn't get her over the line last time in 2008 when she was up against Barack Obama?

DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR MEDIA AND POLITICAL REPORTER: No, it didn't work in 2008 because Bill Clinton was playing the attack dog for the Clinton campaign and they were seen as running -- you know, Obama was running on hope and change. He was trying to elevate the conversation. The Clintons were seen as sort of bringing it down into the typical mudslinging where you see in presidential campaign seasons.

It's a different calculus now because all of the mudslinging is taking place on the Republican side and there is really no mud to be slung over on the Democratic side. So the stage is sort of set for the Clintons to take the high road here especially in light of everything that's been going on with Republicans and of course Donald Trump.

VAUSE: And with that in mind, so, I guess, are you saying Clinton -- Bill Clinton is a better campaigner now or more effective campaigner especially because he is a bit older, he's a bit more liked? He is now this elder statesman.

BYERS: He is certainly an elder statesman. And it would -- I think it would be foolish to every underestimate his added value to the campaign despite what happened in 2008. I mean, look just at the 2012 Democratic convention. By most accounts he saved that convention for Barack Obama with a really -- the sort of award-winning speech of that four-day --

(CROSSTALK)

BYERS: Right. Of that four-day period. You know, so look, he has been through the ringer many, many times. The question is, can he work within the framework that the Clinton campaign wants. Right. Can he be effective in that way? Can he not go too far out on his own? Because he is really willing to say whatever he wants to say, whatever comes to his mind. He is that sort of politician. But if he can work within his wife's framework then he can be a very effective campaigner.

VAUSE: High reward, high risk calculation in some ways. You talked about his being, you know, through the ringer, that, you know, he's speaking to a lot of these sort of things before, and Donald Trump now is essentially saying Bill Clinton's history of infidelity is fair game. Is this something that could end up I guess in a way hurting Bill Clinton but kind of helping Hillary Clinton indirectly?

BYERS: Yes, it's complicated and it would be -- you want to be careful in terms of trying to predict how all of this plays out. It's never good to have your dirty laundry aired. It's especially not good to have your dirty laundry aired by someone like Donald Trump who really has no limits to what he'll say and he would -- has an enormous following and certainly influences media coverage.

But yes, by the same token, it could help Hillary Clinton because by going after this issue where Hillary Clinton was sort of the victim of her husband's infidelity, you could reinforce that image of her as this really strong individual, really strong wife who stood by her husband in a hard time and persevered and went on to have this truly historic sort of political career.

VAUSE: OK. Finally, if you look at those poll numbers, though, Donald Trump doing very well with Republican women but doing awful with women voters in general. I mean, this is yet another one of these examples that we always talk about with Trump that, you know, he's doing whatever he has to do to win the nomination but that could ultimately lose him the election.

BYERS: Right, and this is the important point because by going after the Clintons, Donald Trump is saying I've moved on, it's, you know, 2015, we're moving into 2016. We're turning over new leaf. And I'm entering the general election, never mind that none -- no votes have been cast.

VAUSE: Yes.

[01:15:03] BYERS: No caucuses have been held. But all of these attacks against the Clintons, these are red meat for the conservative base. He is still very much running a primary campaign and, you know, you look at those numbers of women who oppose Trump among Americans not just among Republicans, and it's very hard to see how these attack lines that work for conservatives could work for a general election audience.

VAUSE: OK. Again, we'll just have to wait and see. The universe -- the Donald Trump universe doesn't play by regular rules.

BYERS: It's quite true.

VAUSE: Dylan, good to speak with you. Thanks for being with us.

BYERS: Thank you.

VAUSE: Still to come here, a grand jury in Ohio decides not to file charges in the deadly police shooting of a 12-year-old boy. The family of Tamir Rice has some harsh words for the prosecutor. That's just ahead. Also police tracked down a so-called affluenza teen weeks after they

say he skipped out on a probation officer. We'll tell you where they caught him.

And the family of a young man shot dead by police in Chicago, taking legal action against the city. We'll have those details next on NEWSROOM L.A.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(SPORTS)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. We go to Mexico now where authorities say they have detained a Texas teenager known as the affluenza teen, wanted in the United States for allegedly violating his probation.

[01:20:06] Ethan Couch and his mother were taken into custody near the resort town of Puerto Vallarta. Couch was sentenced two years ago to probation in a drunk driving crash which killed four people. His attorneys at the time argued Couch suffered from what they named affluenza because his wealthy parents never taught him right from wrong.

Police say Couch missed an appointment with his probation officer earlier this month and along with his mother disappeared. Couch and his mother are expected to be turned over to U.S. Marshals.

I spoke last hour with civil rights attorney and legal affairs commentator Areva Martin and I asked her what sort of punishment could Couch now be facing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AREVA MARTIN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY AND LEGAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: There's also this video, apparently --

VAUSE: The beer pong.

MARTIN: -- of a teenager drinking, that they're saying looks very much like Ethan Couch. And we know one of the terms, important terms, of his probation that -- was that he not drink or do drugs. And so if that video can be authenticated, and that is Ethan Couch, he faces the possibility of up to 10 years in jail and for the victims' families, they say that's not enough time.

VAUSE: That's what I was going to ask you. This does not affect his sentence in any way because I know prosecutors at the time wanted at least 20 years in jail.

MARTIN: Yes. Yes.

VAUSE: So what happened over the last couple of days, and the video with the beer pong, doesn't affect the judge's decision? MARTIN: Well, it doesn't affect it right now because we haven't been

able to confirm that he is actually the teen in this video.

VAUSE: Right.

MARTIN: But once there's an investigation, and it's completed, and it's determined that he's drinking and he's violated his probation, he could face up to 10 years in jail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: A grand jury in Ohio has decided not to indict two police officers involved in the shooting death of a 12-year-old boy. An officer-in-training shot Tamir Rice last year as he held a pellet gun outside a recreation center in Cleveland. A dispatcher sent police to the scene without telling them Rice was a juvenile or that the gun may in fact be fake. The county prosecutor called Rice's death a tragedy but said it's not clear if officers had acted criminally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM MCGINTY, PROSECUTOR, CUYAHOGA COUNTY, OHIO: Upon close examination, especially of what is perhaps the most critical piece of evidence, a very recent enhancement of the surveillance video by an expert laboratory often relied upon by the FBI, it is now indisputable that Tamir was drawing his gun from his waist as the police slid toward him, and Officer Loehmann exited the car.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: CNN's Martin Savidge joins us now from Cleveland.

And Marty, the prosecutor described the shooting as a perfect storm of human error but not a crime. So what is the reaction there being in Cleveland both from the family of Tamir Rice as well as the activists who wanted those police officers charged?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the family couldn't disagree more. They do see it as a crime. They see it as in fact, using the words of the mother of Tamir Rice, was the murder of her son. So she believes that there was a great injustice done here. And she also says, and has made this quite clear that she believes this case was mishandled. Beyond even mishandled actually by the prosecutor, she says that it was sabotaged, implying that there was some sort of deliberate effort on the part of the Cuyahoga County prosecutor here to prevent any charges being filed against these officers.

The grand jury agreed with the prosecutor. That's not to say that they agreed in any way with what the mother has depicted as to how it's happened. By the way, we are standing at the gazebo. This is the recreation center where this all tragically happened in November of 2014. Publicly there have been small protests. Not large numbers as yet. But this caught a lot of people, I think, surprised, not because they knew eventually there'd be a ruling but the week before Christmas and New Year's is not a time that many had thought it would come down. Perhaps that was part of the planning if you could say there was any planning at all -- John.

VAUSE: Yes, also the family calling if there are to be demonstrations, to keep them peaceful and lawful. May also be contributing to I guess a quieter reaction or a more muted reaction on the streets of Cleveland.

One interesting point, though, that the prosecutor made in this, and for me it involved a radio dispatcher, saying the dispatcher was partly to blame for not passing on vital information to the officers. Exactly what was that information and will there be repercussions for that?

SAVIDGE: Right, the information specifically is the person who called in initially said that he believed that the person with the gun, in other words, Tamir Rice, was a juvenile. And that the gun, he didn't believe, was real. But that critical information was never apparently passed along to the responding officers. Instead, they were given what was called a priority one call. Doesn't get any higher than that when it comes to alarm, being told that there was a person with a gun on the recreation center that was threatening people. That's why police responded, they say, as they did.

There are actually two radio operators, you could say. One person takes the call, types it up and transmits it, sends it to the radio dispatcher who then transmits that information to the officers responding.

[01:25:09] Somewhere in between there was a breakdown and that's what the prosecutor is pointing to as a substantial error in this whole case. But there hasn't been an investigation of that as yet, because the city was waiting until the grand jury ruled or didn't rule in this particular case. So now that investigation will begin.

VAUSE: And what is next for the two police officers who are at the center of the shooting?

SAVIDGE: Well, you could imagine I -- according to their attorney, who I have spoken to, they are relieved. Nobody is celebrating. And that should never be construed that way. In fact, the police union put out a message saying there is no celebration. This is a horrific tragedy. But you can bet for them it must be a relief. And I'm talking about those two officers. There is still a civil suit, and that's going to be filed -- or it has been -- will be handled by the city.

But these men are going to have to live with what happened. Some are saying they still should leave the force. We have no idea where it's going to progress regarding that. It's too early -- John.

VAUSE: Martin, it's always good to speak with you. Thank you, we appreciate it.

SAVIDGE: Thank you, John.

VAUSE: We turn now to Chicago where a father is suing the city after his son was killed by a police over the weekend. An officer shot 18- year-old Quintonio Legrier, while responding to a domestic disturbance call on Saturday. They say Legrier held a metal bat. Authorities say 55-year-old Betty Jones, a neighbor, was accidentally shot and killed.

According to the wrongful death suit. the officers shot Legrier without justification and used excessive force. The incident is putting increasing pressure on Mayor Rahm Emanuel who has ordered changes in how the city's police are trained.

The mayor is also cutting his family vacation short to return to Chicago.

Still to come here, a big storm system is bringing severe weather across the United States. Up next, the sad return for many who what is left of their homes destroyed by tornadoes in Texas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:30:40] JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. Just on 10:30 on Monday night. I'm John Vause. Time to take the headlines.

An Iraqi general says it will take few more weeks to clear up remaining pockets of ISIS society (ph) from the city of Ramadi. Iraq's military declared the city "liberated" on Monday after another day of intense fighting.

We got this latest and now buying to retake other cities dramatically.

Mexican authorities had detained the so called "affluenza" teen, Ethan Couch and his mother near Puerto Vallarta. They disappeared early this month after police take accounts missed unemployment within probational concerns. He was sentenced to probation for 2013 drunken- driving crash that killed four people.

But then we're off to an Ohio boy shot and killed by police that say the prosecutors deliberately sabotaged the case. The grand jury decided not to indict the officers involved in the death when they arrived last year. Police say videos show Rice reaching for a pellet gun when he was shot by an officer in frail.

At least 43 people have been killed by severe weather across the United States in the past weekend.

That's on all that we get. Texas is one of the hottest of States and now after the deadly tornadoes this snow, is CNN's Alina Machado.

(START VIDEO CLIP)

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The path of destruction carved by this deadly December tornado...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh it's massive. Oh my gosh. It's big.

MACHADO: It's growing clearer by the day. The twister, a part of a massive storm system that swept through Texas and parts of the Midwest over the weekend killing 24 people.

In Texas 11 people died. Eight of them in Dallas County.

On Monday, less than 48 hours after the storm survivors were allowed back into some of the hardest hit areas for the first time. Carol Barnes (ph) with Amanda. Her house barely standing. Several cars piled up in front of the home.

CAROL BARNES, STORM SURVIVOR: I think I'm in shock right now because I really don't believe that happened.

MACHADO: Barnes and her family rode up the storm inside a bathroom. Her husband and her children held on as the twister tore through the home.

BARNES: The walls twisted (ph) again and the house was rocking. And we just got here. All we know is (ph) we have to hold on, hold on. And then it was not (INAUDIBLE).

MACHADO: They survived but lost everything in the storm. So did they have aggrieved and his family.

DAVID RUIZ, STORM SURVIVOR: We really don't know what's coming next. You know, you don't know how to recover yet.

MACHADO: The families you care (ph) and they're still missing. The wintery makes that follow the tornado left little hope of salvaging much of what was left behind but Ruiz said, he's glad they have insurance. Grateful they have the support of family and friends and most of all thankful his wife and two children survived.

RUIZ: Thankfully, a lot of my family sends a lot of money so that we can recover and then wherever that to eat and you know, stay somewhere warmer with a friend.

MACHADO: In Illinois and Missouri, more than a dozen people died after driving onto flooded road. The victims include four foreign soldiers who were temporarily stationed at Fort Leonard Wood for training. Now, people in both States are bracing for what could be record flooding in the coming days

OK so here in Dallas County had released the names of the eight people who lost their lives here. The youngest was just a year old, the oldest with 77.

Alina Machado, CNN Garland, Texas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: OK and more on (ph) will walk away with the hopes in the coming days and the coming weeks.

Meteorogist, Pedram Javaheri joins us now from the CNN weather center so this is being crazy weather and we've been saying this for a lot left in the system. PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I think so, yeah, the flooding aspect of what we heard there John so I think it's really what's concerning that people that caught up in tornadoes and tornado fatalities which we've had a large number in recent days and flooding on a given year.

On average, it takes more lives of the United States then does the tornado than do tornadoes but take a look at this, over 400 related reports of flooding as far a river gauges reporting flooding from 300 more near flood stage across much of the Midwestern and also the Southern United States and of course roughly 70 tornadoes spawned in a 7-day period that have caused substantial damage across this region, very unusual. Typically you see about 24 for the entire month of December and now we're talking almost 70 in our 7 days.

[01:34:59] But now across parts of the U.K. also seen significant flooding taking place here. We have officials in place doing rescue operations, water rescues as well and this pattern continues with additional rainfall and unfortunately a lot of the regions in the U.K. dealing with flooding right here on the western periphery of it additional rainfall in the forecast across that region and then it move away towards South America. Some of the worst flood in five decades taking place across this region.

I just want to lay down how does this all globally connects because when we talk about an El Nino pattern we're talking we're talking about water temperatures across the equatorial Pacific warming up as they do it. They displaced the jet stream where that's steering currently (ph) atmosphere as it move away towards the Western United States and now we're seeing an area like Portland and Seattle that have seen rainfall all 28 days in the month of December.

Then at Southeast, of course, where tornadoes -- six consecutive days of tornadoes occurring in the month of December. The last time that happened was also an El Nino year back in 1982. We've seen significant flooding across portion of the U.K. working down towards Argentina. We see massive floods take place across this region as well.

And globally speaking again, John, this is something that typically has a somewhere near the $30 billion to $45 billion advantage that leave the current last call around the 1997 and to '98 with a major El Nino years so this is something that we're watching carefully for the coming couple of months.

VAUSE: Yeah, the bigger picture certainly is that there's a low uprising weather story that come. Thanks Pedram.

JAVAHERI: Thanks

VAUSE: That's our main story now. A major blow to ISIS. Iraqi forces say they have one back control of Ramadi, the capital of this strategic city as reinvigorate in the real for Iraqi forces.

CNN's Elise Labott has more now more and what this means to the overall fight against ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELISE LABOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Claiming of "epic victory." The Iraqi army announced the liberation of Ramadi just 60 miles west of Baghdad. With our own surveillance spotted shows the moment that Iraqi troops raised the national flag over the government complex.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, THROUGH AN INTERPRETER: Now the city of Ramadi has been liberated.

LABOTT: U.S.-led coalition of airstrikes aided military trained Iraqi forces, who pulled in ISIS targets. Today, the coalition they're not ready to declare the city liberated called the success of "Proud moment for Iraq".

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Iraqi forces have made great progress over the last week or so.

LABOTT: The celebrations could be short-lived. Topics of resistance remained along with hundreds of explosives planted by the terror group. Also, still unclear whether Iraqi forces can hold the city and south Shia militias, who were not included in the operation from reigniting sectarian tensions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This needs to be an inclusive governmental approach. Iraqi armed forces need to show that they're actually committed to that process.

LABOTT: Retaking the capital and largest population center of the predominantly Sunni Al Anbar province a strategic and symbolic they agreed for the Iraqi army. The city's fall to ISIS in May and embarrassing defeat that had Defense Secretary Carter questioning their resolve.

ASH CARTER, DEFENSE SECRETARY: They ought to fight. They withdrew from the site.

LABOTT: But just weeks ago, Carter urged Iraq's Prime Minister to move North toward Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, where ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi proclaimed the caliphate more than a year ago.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you want to help build on your success at Ramadi and to move towards Mosul.

LABOTT: After a recent string of defeats in Baiji, North of Baghdad, and Sinjar Mountain where the fight against ISIS began. Al-Baghdadi warned in a new audio recording that despite the setbacks, ISIS remained strong, promising an epic final battle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LABOTT: On Monday Iraqi Prime Minister Al-Abadi tweeted with what he called complete confidence but the Iraqi's are now going to liberate Mosul but spokesman for the coalition says first, the Iraqi's have a lot of work to do to retake and secure all of Al-Anbar province including Fallujah. The coalition also needs to finish training the remainder of the Iraqi army and resupply forces after these last few months of fighting. But Mosul is considered the big prize in freeing Iraq from ISIS and that coalition says it is determined to help the Iraqi's make that happen.

Elise Labott, CNN Washington.

VAUSE: Aaron Cohen with us down in few days (ph). He was with this the Israeli Special Forces. He's is also the founder of the Cherries Counter-Terrorism School which specializes in tactical training for law enforcement that go for Special Operations Forces.

So thanks for being with us. So Aaron if this is going to be the model for retaking for Mosul and then training out the Sunni forces and have the Iraqi military do the heavy lifting on the ground. It's going to be a very long time before they actually are in any position to take Mosul, because here at Ramadi about 7 months before they're repositioned to take Ramadi, Mosul is a lot bigger. There's lot more ISIS troops there and there's a lot of territory between Ramadi and Mosul.

[01:39:58] AARON COHEN, FORMER ISRAELI SPECIAL FORCES: Yeah and just the training itself that requires, need thousands or hundreds (ph) of ammunitions and multiple of dozens hundreds of instructors who I have noticed snippets of some of the bureau that I've been seeing right now so the Iraqi's are not on their own on this operation. They are heavily backed by U.S. Special Operations from what I can see by looking at the footage which is a little -- which goes against what we've been told as far as putting boots on the ground but that is a reality.

VAUSE: Yeah.

COHEN: Having said that at the end of the day, this is a monster project which is going to not see immediate results and the reason why is because ISIS will not fight face to face. Terror groups don't do that, so I don't know how much resistance we were looking at here and I wouldn't be surprised given the fact this is Guerilla warfare that these guys ended up dispersing pretty quickly and blending back into the crowds.

VAUSE: Yeah, this is not the traditional warfare where you take and kill not anyone and you declare that a victory and you move on. It so an important victory for a lot of reasons specially against ISIS in Iraq but the terror group is still making territorial games in places like Afghanistan. It's holding grounds in Syria and in Libya so we have to keep this in context, don't we?

COHEN: We do and I don't think that this is any real significant victor. I think it's important as far the term "context". What does that mean?

This terror group immediately dispersed. I think they may have made some contact but again I think they ended up disappearing. What they are capable of continuing to do as an international terror organization is continue to use that propaganda and continue to recruit incite by building up their fighting forces and so I think Afghanistan, I think Pakistan, like you said we are nowhere close to putting ISIS into any kind of done industrial (ph).

VAUSE: We got some of Al-Baghdadi a rare audio recording. He said in railing the troops and the followers. What does ISIS do now? What should we expect to this so that the kind of punch for ISIS.

COHEN: ISIS is going to continue to get on YouTube. They're going to continue to get on Twitter. They're going to continue to use social media.

VAUSE: What about it?

COHEN: In order to -- in order to continue to just propagate and show the world that they are strong.

VAUSE: What they have to show the world but I guess in terms of attacks. What do they do -- what will they hit?

COHEN: Well, I said, well, exactly what they've been doing which is continue to incite and propagate and use that as their primary weapon which is, we can tap into a vast number of potentially millions of want to be used to, ought to be or want to become or affiliated with ISIS tapping into that 21-year-old suffering from loss of esteem often, who knows country and then get him to want to pick up a rifle, get a weapon and then open fire into a crowd.

We saw this in San Bernardino right here. They're treating that as terrorism so ISIS continues to do what they do, which is the main weapon is let's tap into any potential sympathizer that we can recruit to create acts at there.

VAUSE: So in otherwise very quickly it's impossible to know exactly where they're going to hit, which target, what next, but they -- do you expect something?

COHEN: That is the -- that is the -- unfortunately that is the biggest problem with terrorism. When you're dealing with Guerrilla warfare, you're dealing with an enemy that can just -- and this is even worst because now these guys can use the internet.

VAUSE: Yeah.

COHEN: So they can continue to just insight, recruit, attack as they feel it's appropriate, retreat back into the crowds and disappearing the civilian population and take their time and that's the problem when you're fighting this type of war.

You can't -- the intelligence has to be so spot on that taking large pieces of Ramadi means nothing in the big picture of the macro picture of counter-terrorism.

Let's see what happens in Mosul and I wouldn't be surprised if ISIS disappeared after we go after them soon was well.

VAUSE: Thanks for the context Aaron. COHEN: Thanks for everything.

VAUSE: Thanks for coming in, appreciate it.

A short break here. When we come back here on CNN NEWROOM, how pollution in China's capital is making a profit. Hold on (ph) for the rest.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI METEOROLOGIST: A time for Ski Watch, Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri with you starting off across the Cascades of the Western United States where the snow amount, the snow depth pretty impressive. If you ask me with 110 to150 inches of a depth for the snow there and notice the next disturbance that comes in and comes in on a quite dry sides and certainly nothing compared to what we've seen in recent days in places like Portland, that I've seen rainfall each of the last 28 days so far in the month of December. It might going to break here in the coming couple of days. But higher elevation will cause for sunny skies.

About minor state Crystal mountain, Mount Baker makes it down to minus four. Certainly a good day if you have a week day plan to be out across to some of this mountain ranges and notice the conditions across parts of Colorado but 99 percent of the trails open packed powder but nothing on the way of recent accumulations but still a good base depth of about 30 to 40 inches that's on the ground across that region and across California.

Also looking at a dryer pattern with some of the trails specially Mammoth Mountain, 100 percent now open packed powder to go around with a chance to also looking at roughly 70 percent of the trail being opened with about 54 or so inches and also following what's happening on the Eastern side of the areas of North America, honest to say Canada's -- Southern Canada, Montreal towards Quebec, disturbance coming in so the higher elevations in this region leave as to say we'll take any snow they can get and we get it across some of these areas about 18 to 26 inches have fallen so far.

[01:45:03] A couple more in the forecast in this region.

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VAUSE: We got a Beijing (inaudible) which is quite literally choking on its own air so residents of Beijing, Shanghai and one province in Eastern China are the top buyers of face masks. Leading some to try and cash in on pollution with everything from those stylish masks to some canned fresh air.

Here's Matt Rivers.

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is no doubt that living in pollution like we see in Beijing can be harmful to your health, and frankly the longer the smog lingers, it can get you a bit down. But people always say, focus on the positives and there are positives here, specifically, positive profits.

There is an entire industry here in Beijing focused on helping people deal with pollution. Air purifiers for apartments or homes are some of the first thing that expats buy when they arrive in Beijing. And the Chinese public is starting to buy them too, more aware than ever of the harmful effects of pollution.

And if you want to know just how effective those purifiers are, there's a product for that too. This little device known as the "Laser Egg", is a product built right here in Beijing that will tell you how good or bad the air quality is inside your home.

After the first red alert for pollution earlier this month, the company says it's sold out its entire supply in under a day. And then there's masks, as ubiquitous on Beijing's streets as cars and scooters. They are becoming more and more popular here, never more visible and when the air quality is like it is right now.

Disposable masks, like this one here have been prevalent for some time. But masks designed for longer term use are grabbing more and more market share. We recently spoke with one young British entrepreneur who started his own mask company here within the last few months. And business is good.

CHRISTOPHER DOBBING, CEO, CAMBRIDGE MASK, CO: It was in September. We'd have about 40 percent monthly queries since we started. So it's been very quick and with the red alerts being shoot in Beijing in December this year that's certainly focused a lot of minds in the attention on the air pollution issue and that's a big prompt up in sales. We're actually completely out of stock at the moment.

RIVERS: And this pollution isn't going anywhere, anytime fast so you'd imagine there's a lot more room for growth in this industry. And then there's this, this is an aerosol can filled with air from the Canadian rocky mountains. The company there just started selling this here in China and says, and so far they've sold hundreds of bottles.

You take a breath of the fresh air, it's a little bit awkward but it is definitely fresh. And a $30 of can apparently, you can put a price on fresh air.

Matt Rivers, CNN Beijing.

VAUSE: Well, so they come here on CNN. In the top -- talk to the people, and a Japanese teenager teaming up and taking his back, against bullying.

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[01:50:56] JAVAHERI: Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri for CNN WeatherWatch starting off across the Americas right now. We have pretty active storm facts (ph). In recent days there is the disturbance as it pushes up towards the great lace eventually towards the North East. This is part of the sea storm that it's continued a stretcher of 6 consecutives days of at least one tornado across the United States first time since the early 1980s.

We had a pattern that's formed that many tornados in a 6-day period and of course we know it's the months of December but here you go the storm system as it pushes off to the North and East. Seems no shower is possible across parts of New England.

This is the first time all season for some of this spots, you notice the trend but the temps thus remain rather mild. Let will see some isolated to be weather cost Eastern portion of the state Georgia on into Western area of the state of South Carolina as well, but here we go.

The next couple days' temperatures want to cool off a little bit really moderate South. So we don't think much in the way of a drastic cool down for a large part of the country.

So we'll go with this, Montreal. No showers and wind about free below. Nearly clicking at about 11 degrees with some morning showers of course a far cry from temps that were into 20s with the couple of days but again above seasonal values even at 11 degrees and down with the South, (inaudible) at the upper 20s, some shower is possible around Belize City but will keep it dry from Managua towards Guatemala City. Temperatures there should be into the upper 20s and again isolated showers and make sure nothing in the way of organized activity across this region. We'll give you the forecast in South America.

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VAUSE: Lemmy, the hard rocking front man of the heavy metal band Motorhead died on Monday, (inaudible). Lemmy was born in 1975 and Lemmy has been the only consistent member. His music helps shape hard rock and heavy metal.

Japanese teenager, Nanae Munemasa, knows all too well what it's like to be bullied. She's dealt with it since elementary school, even considered taking her own life. The story resonated with members of the Indie pop group, Foster the People, and now the two are fighting back against bullying.

Paul Vercammen has the details.

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN: The story of how a teenage girl from Japan wind up in California recording with Indie pop darlings Foster the People begins on a darker note. A disturbing CNN piece about bullying.

Nanae Munemasa explains starting in second grade she was slapped. Being with broomsticks, she later contemplated suicide.

NANAE MUNEMASA, SINGER: (Speaking in Foreign Language) The big problem in Japan is that when you are seen as somebody that's a little bit different or strange and deviate from mainstream society, that's when bullying happens.

MARK FOSTER, MUSICIAIN: When I read the story, I just -- it took me right back to the place when I was her age in school, and right when I really discovered music, and music for me at that moment was kind of my outlet. So really like I guess it gave me hope.

VERCAMMEN: Foster the People known for social consciousness created a fund drive to fly Munemasa to the US to collaborate on a steering (ph) song. [01:55:03] MUNEMASA: (Speaking in Foreign Language) This song is very autobiographical. It's about me losing hope in my life at some point but I decided to keep going and I decided to live. Even when thinking of suicidal thoughts. It's about a miracle that happens if you keep living.

VERCAMMEN: The young singer is also receiving support from Molly Thomson and Lauren Paul, the wife of Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul.

The friends founded Kind Campaign and now speak its cools about girl on girl bullying.

LAUREN PAUL, FOUNDER, KIND CAMPAIGN: To be able to really stand in front of girls and to let them know that that's never the solution to anything and how I just wish so badly that I would have reached out to a counselor to talk to my parents more about what I was going through.

MOLLY THOMPSON, FOUNDER, KIND CAMPAIGN: But we love, you know, being here today that you part of this story and this amazing experience and creating awareness all over the world and specifically in Japan.

UNIDENTFIED MALE: It has a talent mark. This is -- no, junior varsity performer.

FOSTER: It's a really kind of walk into the situation being like, "OK, what are we going to do now?" and, you know, after the first test like wow, you know, this girl is really something special.

VERCAMMEN: Paul Vercammen, CNN (inaudible) California.

VAUSE: And thank you for watching, I'm John Vause. Please stay with us. More news after the break with (inaudible).

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