(CNN) - Bad weather hampered Monday's search for AirAsia Flight QZ8501, and with a long rainy season, weather in the search area today will look a lot like it did the morning 8501 went down. Showers and thunderstorms are expected in the region.

One of the key countries helping with the search is Australia, which of course played a big role in the hunt for Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 earlier this year.

Kim Beazley, Australian Ambassador to the United States, joins "The Lead" to detail the efforts.

(CNN) - President Obama scolded Sony Pictures today for scrapping plans to release "The Interview." And Sony hit back, telling CNN exclusively that they had no choice.

The movie itself may be a farce, but the 'bigger picture' here has very serious implications for U.S. national security.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein characterized the attack as "monumental," and acknowledged that U.S. lacks any "real policy" to respond to cybersecurity attacks.

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(CNN) - State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki is shrugging off any notion that the U.S. is setting a bad precedent now that Sony has caved to hackers.

"I can assure you the United States is not blinking or backing down or in a fear position here. We're well aware of the cyber threats not just from North Korea, but other countries out there," Psaki told CNN's Jake Tapper. "The fact is businesses, including movies, companies make business decisions and that's up to them to make. Private sector companies make their own decisions. That's the beauty of the private sector in the united states. We're going to continue to speak out. We believe in freedom of speech, expression that actors and actresses should be able to continue to do that."

Psaki also stopped short of calling the hackers' "cyberterrorists," despite their threats, which invoked 9-11 and led to Sony pulling the release of "The Interview" altogether, and the havoc they created on a major American company's hardware and operations.

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