NOW-WITH-01
Brain Dead, Five Others Ill; Police Name One Of Jakarta Attackers;
Indonesia's Muslims Condemn Islamic Terrorism; Sean Penn: "Terrible Regret"
Over "El Chapo" Story; Global Markets In Turmoil As Oil Prices Drop;
Netflix Cracks Down On Content Grab; U.N. Chief: Starvation In Syria "A War
Crime"; Candidates Trade Jabs In Republican Debate; Tim Peake Becomes
Britain's First Spacewalking Astronaut. Aired 3-4p ET - Part 1>
Romo, Samuel Burke, Alison Kosik, John Berman, Mark Preston>
person brain-dead. Five other people who participated in this test carried
out by the company BO-Trial are in a hospital; In the race between Donald
Trump and Ted Cruz, the current Republican frontrunners, two things now
abundantly clear, it is truce off and game on>
Middle East; Syria; Politics; Astronautics and Space>
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HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Hala Gorani. We are live at CNN London. This is the WORLD RIGHT NOW.
It's winter in the northern hemisphere and markets have definitely entered big chill territory. Falling oil prices sending the Dow into a deep dive in afternoon trading. Let's see where things stand.
Now here's a look at the Dow Jones Industrial average. We are about 51 minutes away from the end of the trading day and we are down 369 points at 16,009, but the Dow was off almost 500 points a little bit earlier.
CNN's Money's digital correspondent, Paul La Monica, says investors are running scare. He joins me now from New York, and also joining us, Neil Sheering, chief emerging markets for Capital Economics. Thanks to you both for being with us.
All right, I'm going to start with Neil Sheering. First of all, why are we seeing panic now? Is this a fundamentals problem here?
NEIL SHEERING, CHIEF EMERGING MARKETS ECONOMIST, CAPITAL ECONOMICS: I think that at the essence of this latest sell-off is concerns about emerging markets. They were supposed to be the economies that were rapidly growing and drive the global economy off to the financial crisis of 2008.
And for a while that happened, but more recently we have seen concerns emerged in the direction of China's economy in particular. Russia is in a deep recession and Brazil is a deep recession.
And there are fears that this is going to affect other parts of the global economy, too. The dollar has gone up in value starting to hurt the U.S. manufacturing sector. Europe has its problems as well.
All of those things have coalesced and come together at the start of this year and helped to explain why we have seen this latest slide in the financial markets.
GORANI: And Paul La Monica, is it a justified slide?
PAUL R. LA MONICA, CNN MONEY DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: I think that there are definitely some legitimate reasons why portions of the stock market should be falling. Clearly with oil doing what it has done. Energy companies are going to be down.
There are some stocks that had amazing runs last year like Amazon and Netflix and Facebook, and they probably deserve to pull back a little bit too.
But this broad market sell-off does seem to be a bit of an overly emotional reaction to what's happening with oil and some of the fears about China. This happened in August remember.
And then we had an amazing rally in October, and now we're back where we were last summer. So investors just can't seem to shake these worries about China and oil.
GORANI: And Neil Sheering, is this a case of waiting for quarterly results to see if these fears that we're seeing a real pullback in economic growth coming from abroad are justified?
SHEERING: It may well be. Obviously, we look at the quarterly earnings reports. As economists will look at economic data that are coming out over the coming months for signs of a real slowdown in global activity.
But I have to say so far there doesn't seem to be very much in the way of evidence that supports this idea that things have suddenly fallen off the cliff.
Certainly in China the indicators that we follow, we have our (inaudible) measure of growth there. That's been pretty flat in recent months. Nothing to suggest the economy has tanked. And some of those markets too seems to be picking up.
And the U.S. economy weak at the end of last year, but we know the labor market is still in pretty good shape. So all told, I don't think there's much to suggest that the world economy is entering a prolonged dying turn.
I suspect the big force in commodity prices are puts behind us and I think lower commodity prices and oil prices in particular should be a good thing for the global economy and I suspect China's economy will start to probably pick up over the course of the coming months and quarters.
GORANI: Neil, I just wanted to get to Paul. Based on what Neil is saying, which is essentially that we might see China pick back up. That essentially we might see potentially some better quarterly earnings that the Dow that has lost -- I think we have a year-to-date graph or maybe year-on-year graphic that perhaps we're seeing some buying opportunities.
[15:05:08]LA MONICA: Definitely. People I spoke to today said that this is the time to be buying bargain stocks. Quality companies that should be able to weather whatever financial or economic storms might be coming in the next months.
I think that's a great point from Neil about China as well. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said yesterday when that bank reported earnings that what's going on in China isn't necessarily that the sky is falling, it's a hard landing, it a recession or worse.
This is an economy that is transitioning, it's a difficult transition to a consumer led economy. Jamie Dimon says he is still very bullish and optimistic about China for the long term.
We just all have to get used to the fact that China isn't going to grow at the level it used to anymore. That's not a huge problem.
GORANI: By the way, we're seeing a graph, but I really can't read the actual figure. This is year-on-year which means basically the last 12 months. The Dow down 7.5 percent. So yes, where we are now is pretty much where we are in the summer.
I think Paul or Neil, you were mentioning that. So 7.5 percent year on year, it's a bad performance compared to the last few years. But perhaps, Neil, I'm going to give the last word to you, a necessary pullback, readjustment to more realistic levels?
SHEERING: I suspect part of it is necessary. There was some froth in particular in China and Latin America. We have been among the most bearish commentators on emerging markets over the past three years.
I think a lot of the bad news there is now probably in the markets. I think the big drops in prices may well be behind us. It's a great person that enters the market at this stage, but I think over the coming months that we probably start to see some signs of stabilization emerge.
GORANI: All right. Well, you're rewarded if you're brave sometimes and sometimes not at all. Anyway, we'll see how this markets goes. Thanks very much. Neil Sheering and Paul La Monica, both of you in New York. Thanks for joining us on this Friday.
Now to a shocking story in France. A botched drug trial that has left one person brain-dead. Five other people who participated in this test carried out by the company Bio-Trial are in a hospital.
The hospital's chief of neuroscience said some patients may have irreversible disabilities, but he added it is too soon to give a definite prognosis.
Phil Black has been following this tragic story. So this is really the worst case scenario, isn't it? Because this was phase one where participants, the drug is given to participants to see if there are any horrible side effects and there were?
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Phase one trial is supposed to test if it's fit for human consumption follows animal trials. But even that considered, this is not supposed to happen. We have seen this drug given to around 90 people but in different doses.
All of those have reacted negatively to it. They were part of the same group. They started taking it repeatedly from January 7th, but after only a few days one of them started to fall ill, display these negative symptoms.
He is the person who is now clinically brain-dead. The others quickly followed as well. Also neurological symptoms there. Yes, it's pretty serious indeed.
The health administer says this drug, its purpose was to treat anxiety and motor disorders, but he also had to deny some pretty strong reports out of the French media that this was a cannabis-based drug. Take a listen.
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MARISOL TOURAINE, FRENCH HEALTH MINISTER (through translator): Contrary to what I heard, - this drug does not contain any cannabis. And it is not -- there is no drug derived from cannabis. It acts on natural systems that allow to fight against pain. It's what we call the endocannabaloid (inaudible). I insist on that there is no cannabis in this drug.
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BLACK: So no cannabis there but it's easily misunderstood there. If you heard the name, it's actually named after cannabis. The bodily system of this drug is designed to influence -- contains the same receptors that compounds in cannabis interact with.
The private drug lab that was guiding all of this says all regulations were followed. So does the Portuguese company that developed the drug. It's up to the French authorities to investigate what they say is an unprecedented event.
GORANI: And 90 people participated. How many fell ill?
BLACK: So we're looking at the group of six. There was 128 in total, 90 received the drug. The rest were placebos. It appears to be the group that received the highest dose. They were taking it repeatedly.
GORANI: And the others are in the clear or not?
BLACK: So far that's all we're aware of, but of course, obviously this is all being cancelled now as they try to determine what happened.
GORANI: All right, Phil Black, thanks very much for that report. A lot more to come on the WORLD RIGHT NOW on this Friday.
[15:10:02]Fears are increasing that ISIS may be gaining a foothold in Indonesia, but Indonesia's Muslims are standing up against terror in the name of Islam. We'll show you how.
Sean Penn breaks his silence on El Chapo. Find out why he says his "Rolling Stone" article on the drug kingpin, quote, "failed." All that and more after this.
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GORANI: A search is under way for 12 U.S. Marines missing off Hawaii. Officials say two Marine helicopters likely collided late Thursday while on training flights. Witnesses say they heard a loud noise and then they saw a flash. Searchers have found an empty life raft in a debris field.
Indonesian police have released the name of one of the five terrorists in involved in Thursday's deadly attacks in Jakarta. They says his name is Afif (ph), but he's known by an alias, "Sunakim."
He already had been convicted on terror related charges and died during Thursday's attack. You can see cleanup efforts under way at the Starbucks where suicide explosion took place.
The attacks killed two people and wounded 24 others. ISIS claimed responsibility pretty quickly. Indonesian authorities say the alleged mastermind had left the country for Syria some time ago to join the terrorist group.
There are fears now that ISIS is gaining ground in Indonesia. But as Saima Mohsin reports locals are fighting back against that narrative.
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SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the capital's main mosque prayers for those killed and injured and thoughts on the threat of violence extremists like ISIS recruiting Indonesians in the name of Islam.
(on camera): In a strongly worded sermon during Friday prayers here at the grand mosque in Jakarta, the imam has said that terrorism is a crime against humanity and that Islam shouldn't be something to the be scared of or used to spread fear among people.
This, the first to attack on Indonesian soil claimed by ISIS has compelled people here to speak out against terrorism in the name of Islam.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): What happened yesterday they are not Muslims, they are infidels. I condemn them. I demand the government solve this problem. As a Muslim, I reject this terrorism in the name of Islam.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Islam has become a scapegoat. People believe Islam is identical to violence. Every time violence happens people think it's related to Islam but it's not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. No. I'm not terrorist. But I want to say to the world Muslim Islam not terrorists. Terrorists not Muslim
MOHSIN (voice-over): Across the city, an association of Islamic scholars with 50 million Indonesian members worldwide held an interface dialogue with representatives of the Catholic and Protestant churches, Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist communities calling for unity and peace.
[15:15:15]In November 2015 recognizing the potential threat the association released a video campaign aimed at countering extremist ideology. There's growing concern heightened by this attack about ISIS gaining a foothold in the world's largest Muslim country.
At least 500 fighters believed to have traveled from Iraq and Syria from here. That's 500 out of 200 million moderate Muslims in a secular state.
ISIS claimed responsibility for Thursday's gun and bomb attack saying the group was targeting the crusader alliance, which is fighting the Islamic State (inaudible) Indonesian Muslims. Saima Mohsin, CNN, Jakarta, Indonesia.
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GORANI: Sean Penn is speaking out about his interview with drug kingpin, Joaquin El Chapo Guzman and he's not happy. Penn says his "Rolling Stone" article was designed to start a public conversation about the policy of the war on drugs, but he told CBS News that everyone missed the point.
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SEAN PENN, MET WITH "EL CHAPO" IN MOROCCO: There is a complicity there and if you are in a moral right or on the far left, just as many of your children are doing these drugs. Just as many. And how much time have they spent in the last week since this article come out talking about that, 1 percent? I would say that would be generous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are saying there is not much dialogue about --
PENN: My article failed. Let me be clear. My article has failed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: The "Rolling Stone" article sparked more dialogue on Sean Penn and how he got to El Chapo and legal liabilities and everything else. All the spectacle surrounding the interview rather than the drug war of course. We all know that.
Senior Latin American affairs editor, Rafael Romo, has been following every twist in this story since the El Chapo recapture and joins me live.
So Rafael, let me ask you also Sean Penn was asked whether he believed that here we go again not talking about the drug war, right -- whether he believed the fact he got to El Chapo is what led authorities to the drug lord. What did he say?
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: He says listen I'm not that smart. The DEA and the Mexican officials are smarter than we are and that was not my purpose at all. He wanted to set the record straight, Hala, and he chose CBS to do so.
In this interview with Charlie Rose he says his goal was not to glorify Joaquin El Chapo Guzman or the Sinaloa cartel for that matter. What I wanted to do he told Rose was to start a conversation about the policy of the war on drugs.
But as soon as know, Hala, the conversation about Sean Penn's 10,000-word article that appeared Saturday on "Rolling Stone" magazine has centered on potential legal problems he may face because he's been involved in it and the process how he got access to El Chapo in the first place.
Now Penn also wanted to spell the notion that it was this interview that helped Mexican officials like I said before find El Chapo's whereabouts which led to his capture. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have met with him many weeks earlier on October 2nd.
PENN: On October 2nd. In a place nowhere near where he was captured. We're not smarter than the DEA or the Mexican intelligence. We had a contact upon which we were able to facilitate an invitation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you believe that the Mexican government released this in part because they wanted to see you blamed and to put you at risk?
PENN: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They wanted to encourage the cartel to put you in their crosshairs?
PENN: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMO: Now, both Mexican and U.S. officials have told us in the last few days that the meeting with El Chapo, Hala, was essential to the drug lord's capture. Back to you.
GORANI: OK. Now, let's -- we're waiting to hear from El Chapo's lawyer right? What are we expecting the lawyer to say at this stage?
ROMO: Well, he wants to discuss what's going to happen with the extradition effort. His attorneys in Mexico are solely responsible for trying to prevent El Chapo from being extradited to the United States.
There was a brief media availability last weekend and he said as much and so that's what we expect he'll talk about. There's a matter of legal appeals that he can use in the meantime and Mexican attorney general has said it may take anywhere from one to five years before he can be extradited to the U.S. -- Hala.
[15:20:03]GORANI: And very briefly, I'm seeing an urgent here that Mexican authorities are investigating possible El Chapo funding of the Mexican actors he was exchanging text messages with, of Castillo's tequila venture. I don't know how to make heads or tails of that. What is this about?
ROMO: Kate Del Castillo has a tequila distribution company in the United States and what are authorities are trying to find out is whether her company was funded provided by El Chapo as a means to launder money. If this is true, Hala, Kate Del Castillo, a very famous Mexican actress, would be in serious legal trouble.
GORANI: OK, thanks very much, Rafael Romo, for the very latest on the El Chapo saga.
Now he's a world famous hiphop artist, an actor, a political activist and he is now in trouble with South African authorities. Moss Deff (ph) has appeared in a Cape Town court after attempting to leave the country with what he described as a world passport.
A government spokesman says the 42-year-old entertainer, his wife, mother and four kids overstayed their tourist visas and all have been ordered to leave the country within 14 days. The rapper now goes by the name of Yasin Bay and has lived in Cape Town since 2013, but could find himself banned from the country for five years. That's your update on that.
Coming up, Netflix is cracking down on remote streaming from abroad, but its CEO insists the same shows are going to many countries very soon. We're live from New York next.
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GORANI: Welcome back. This is what's going on with the Dow right now. We were down almost 500 points. Off session lows but still a bruising day. Down 2.5 percent at 15,971. We are back to the levels of about last summer.
So is this an accurate reflection of the economic picture or is this a good opportunity to snap up stocks? You have both theories out there. Here's the Nasdaq and S&P for you. In European markets across the board didn't do too well either. There you have it. Not as bad as the Dow but still down.
Slumping oil prices are one of the major factors causing the turmoil in financial markets. Prices for crude have fallen below $30 a barrel. CNN asked Africa's wealthiest man if he thinks oil prices will continue to fall.
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ALIKO DANGOTE, PRESIDENT, DANGOTE GROUP: Easily 2025, you know. It could be 2025. But in a couple of countries it's not a death sentence. You know, it is also an opportunity. I think in Nigeria this will be a lesson for us. I know there are good things that don't come without pay.
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GORANI: There you have it. Now the video streaming giant Netflix is cracking down on people who use computer tricks to access their content. If you have a VPN because you know the content on Netflix U.S. is better than where you are in the world.
Well, possibly you're not going to be able to do that anymore. The California based media company says it intends to block people from using VPN's to watch Netflix programs that are available in other countries but not theirs.
CNN's Samuel Burke has been tracking this Netflix action and he joins me now from New York. OK, so I'm asking for a friend here but when --
SAMUEL BURKE, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's legal, Hala. You don't have to worry. We both do it. Let's just admit it.
GORANI: OK, that's great. Listen, because the content of U.S. Netflix is better. You have more choice and more movies. When is this going to change?
[15:25:07]BURKE: It's going to be starting immediately, but the reverse is sometimes true. In the U.K., for example, you guys have Modern Family, all the episodes available there so sometimes here in the U.S. I use a VP and virtual private network which makes Netflix think that I'm in the U.K. so I can watch the U.K. shows.
Listen, lots of places have been doing this. Outlets like HBO which is owned by our parent company, Time Warner. I always try to access HBO when I'm in the U.K. and it's getting more and more difficult.
So a lot of companies are doing this. China, as well, a lot of businesses depend on accessing Google, which is blocked in China using their VPN has become more difficult.
So all around the world we see them cracking down. My advice if you're watching the show on VPN on Netflix, finish it quickly because I think you're only going to have a few weeks left.
GORANI: So why are they doing this now? They have clearly known about this for a long time.
BURKE: Well, I think they're also wanting to put pressure on the movie houses, on the TV companies that give them their content to say we want to make things available globally. Stop doing these contracts with us that only make it available in the United States, not in the U.K., available in this country and not there.
Netflix says clearly listen we want to be a global channel, we want everybody to be able to watch content at the same time, which is part of the goal of the Netflix original series, but even there they have trouble.
"House Of Cards," most people think it's created by Netflix so it's available all around the world but it's not. Places like Singapore it's on television stations so they have a separate contract. So it's not available there.
I think this is in part Netflix trying to push these companies to make them give them global rights. An interesting stat I wanted to share with you, 21.3 million people in China use Netflix and Netflix isn't even available there. This is all because of the VPN but not for long.
GORANI: Aren't they shooting themselves in the foot here? I mean, essentially if you're preventing people from using VPN to access content from other countries, won't people say I don't want Netflix then, I can't access these shows that I was watching easily and in an unrestricted way?
BURKE: Interesting that you see that, Hala, because one analyst I spoke today said they might lose some customers in the short term because there are people who are just paying so they can see the American version of Netflix, but think that long term they have proven that their strategies have worked.
Hopefully they do get those contract so we can all watch at the same time. I hated when I lived in Mexico and had to wait sometimes a year to see movies that were out in the United States.
GORANI: Last question, is there any way around this?
BURKE: Absolutely. For every wall there is always a ladder but it's getting more and more difficult. So you'll have to have your IT guy come from work to do it. There will always be a way but more difficult unfortunately.
GORANI: It's a minor miracle that I'm able to do anything at all. Thank you very much, Samuel Burke. Have a great weekend and thanks for that report. That I think is of interest to many, many people around the world.
We'll have a live check on the markets from New York in a moment. Stay with us.
Also ahead, a second wave of vital aid reaches three desperate Syrian cities. The U.N. secretary general says scenes of starvation. We'll speak to the regional director from UNICEF coming up.
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GORANI: A look at our top stories. It's been a brutal day on Wall Street. The Dow has tumbled hundreds of points due in large part the plummeting oil prices. Worries about China as well.
[15:30:07]Here's a look at the big board, we are down almost 400 points at 15,995 for the Dow.
A drug trial in France has gone terribly wrong leaving one person brain- dead and five others in the hospital. The company called Bio-Trial carried out the test on a drug developed by a Portuguese company. There were 128 volunteers, 90 took the drug. It's a painkiller meant to treat anxiety and motor disorders.
Indonesian police have released the names of one of the five terrorists involved in Thursday's attacks in Jakarta. They say his name is "Afif" (ph) also known by an alias "Sunakeem" (ph. He already had been convicted on terror-related charges. He died during Thursday's attacks.
We expect words soon from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency on whether Iran has held up its end of the deal signed with world powers last year. Compliance will trigger an easing of crippling economic sanctions that was the incentive to curve Iran's nuclear program.
Let's get back to the market turmoil. Alison Kosik joins me now from the New York stock exchange. We are half hour from the close of trade and really we haven't recovered much. Still down 400 points. What's the mood on the floor?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is actually, Hala, quite an improvement from the Dow falling 530 points. Nothing to write home about, 413 points lower, but you have to take what you could get.
What's the mood? I talked to several traders who say they are exhausted from this volatile week that we have had where you have seen several triple digit moves.
There was a lot of surprise about today's action especially after the Dow finished up more than 200 points in the previous session.
Part of the reason you're seeing this is oil. Oil is slipping to levels that we haven't seen since 2003 below $30 a barrel. It's really spooking the markets -- Hala.
GORANI: OK, so what are the expectations going forward? Are experts saying we have taken the necessary air out of the market here? We are correctly value and we hope that from now on we won't see big drops? What are you hearing?
KOSIK: If only we had a crystal ball. No one really knows that's the thing. No one really knows if today is the day of capitulation. You know, it's anyone's guess at this point. I did ask a couple traders what they thought could turn the market around and we are currently in the middle of fourth quarter earnings season.
A couple of things, for one, if earnings come in good and even better than that, if these earnings show that forward guidance is positive for the outlook for a lot of these companies, that could turn stocks around and that could settle the markets as well. It may not be as much volatility.
Also if the fed comes out in one way shape or form signaling to the market that they're not going to ahead and raise rates four times this year because the thinking is that as the fed raises rates that could stifle growth.
You're seeing investors hoping that the fed goes ahead and says wait we're going to pause a bit and not maybe raise rates four times this year, but maybe do it once or twice this year. That could also turn the market around -- Hala.
