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i'm not. you got us t-mobile home internet lite. after a week of streaming they knocked us down... ...to dial up speeds. like from the 90s. great times. all i can do say is that my life is pre-- i like watching the puddles gather rain. -hey, your mom and i procreated to that song. oh, ew! i think you've said enough. why don't we just switch to xfinity like everyone else? then you would know what year it was. i know what year it is. thank you so much for joining us on cnn news central.

it's the top of the hour and we are tracking breaking news. the president of harvard, claudine, has announced that she is resigning after just six months on the job. gay had been under pressure to step down ever since her congressional testimony last month about antisemitism on campus. >> she was being investigated for plagiarism and recently requested corrections to some of her academic work. matt egan is following this story for us. what is happening here? tell us the latest. tell us what is next. >> breonna and boris, claudine gay is resigning after a tumultuous six months at the helm of one of america's most prestigious universities. gay describe this decision as, quote, difficult beyond words, but she said it was one made with deep low for harvard. in a statement to the harvard community, she wrote that after consultation with members of the corporation it has become clear that it is in the best interest of harvard for me to resign so that our community can navigate this moment of

extraordinary challenge with a focus on the institution rather than the individual. this comes three weeks after the harvard corporation issued its unanimous support for gay. they have accepted the resignation of gay who we should note is the first black president in harvard's nearly 400 year history. also, she is just a second woman to lead harvard. the harvard crimson notes that this marks the shortest presidency in harvard's history. let me read you what the harvard corporation, the border that controls the school, said. they put out their own statement and they said that gay did acknowledge and take responsibility for some of her mistakes. they also said that she has shown remarkable resilience in the face of what they described as deeply personal and sustained attacks. they note that some of these attacks came in the form of repugnant and racist vitriol directed at her through

disgraceful emails and phone calls. they say they condemn those attacks in the strongest possible terms. the harvard corporation announced that allen garber, the provost and chief academic officer, has agreed to become the school's interim president until a permanent one is named. how did we get here? it has just been such a tumultuous period for harvard. the school's initial response to the october 7th attacks by hamas against israel was criticized as not condemning hamas in forceful enough terms. that criticism even came from the harvard corporation. there was the hearing just last month before lawmakers where claudine gay struggle to answer a question about whether or not calls for genocide against would violate the school's code of conduct. gay apologized for her testimony. her answers were pretty similar to the leaders of m.i.t. and the university of pennsylvania. perhaps the last straw has been questions around claudine gay's

academic career, her academic writings. there have been charges of plagiarism. she has been forced to issue corrections to multiple writings. that has raised questions about whether or not there is a double standard at harvard. all of this has done some damage to the harvard brand which i mentioned is one of the most prestigious in american universities. after all of that, claudine gay has decided that she is stepping down. the leaders of harvard have decided that they're going to accept the resignation. >> all right, matt egan, thank you so much. joining us now is harvard a student and hillel president jacob miller. thank you for being with us. last time we spoke, bush was just days after claudine gay's hill testimony, you do not think it was necessary that she should resign. a lot has developed since then. what is your reaction to this news? >> thank you for having me. i was very surprised by the news. we didn't see this coming.

in the face of all of these new plagiarism allegations, you know, it should not have taken as totally by surprise. you know, it is a very short time for a president. i was not totally expecting this. >> you are surprised by this? your main concern in this, obviously, as we have been speaking has been her handling of antisemitism on campus, the way her testimony went on capitol hill. ultimately, it may have been this drip, drip, drip on the plagiarism issue which sunk are. what do you think about that? >> i think it was a one-two punch. first, she appeared before congress with that disastrous testimony. after that, all of these plagiarism allegations came out. i think it was a combination of these two factors which led to this massive outcry in public which eventually led to her resignation. i think both of those factors

are important. as a jewish student, i have been very dismayed by the university's response to the antisemitism on campus. it's not just about her, it's about the whole university and a broader discourse of antisemitism in general. i think the attention needs to -- this matter deserves serious attention. >> there were people in her corner who felt that she was targeted as well because she is a black woman. we should be clear, there are multiple things that can be true here, right? obviously, when you look at her work, there are incredibly alarming things about things that have been borrowed or copied or plagiarized here, lots of questions raised about how she handled a question of antisemitism. how are you making sense of all of that? >> you know, there are so many forces out there. she has definitely faced racist attacks. from my perspective, this is

all university politics. it doesn't really affect my day-to-day life. what matters for me is the antisemitism on campus. there are students chanting for an intifada. there are students posting on social media that they think control the media. there are students who are championing terrorism and posting pictures of emojis of heads of babies separated from their torsos. that is what affects me and my peers, not the politics of the president. you know, claudine's resignation is not going to solve the issue of antisemitism on campus. we need a definitive culture shift. >> i wonder, do you have faith that this step means the school will be taking seriously that fixing of campus culture that you are talking about? do you anticipate having conversations with the new interim president allen garber about this? >> you know, it's hard to tell exactly where things are going to go from here. i have spoken with the

president in the past. he has been very attentive to the issue. i am optimistic that we will continue to work with university leadership and president garber to combat the hatred which has become commonplace on harvard's campus. >> have you've been speaking with other students? what are they saying? i know it's sort of hard to gauge right now around the holidays, but what is the mood about all of this? >> i mean, my phone has blown up after this about the president's resignation. i think a lot of jewish students were very dissatisfied. people have become disillusioned with the discourse that is going on. you know, i think people just want campus to return back to how it was but also to improve beyond that. there is antisemitism which existed before and the war in israel just kind of took it to the floor. >> jacob, we appreciate the

ongoing conversation. thank you so much. there's obviously a lot of focus on harvard. we thank you for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> boris? now to stunning new developments out of the middle east. hamas has now confirmed that one of its senior leaders, this man, was killed in beirut. the terror group says that an israeli airstrike caused the explosion. so far, israeli military has not commented on the strike. local news outlets say that at least four people were killed at the site of the explosion which reportedly targeted an office building belonging to hamas. let's bring in cnn military analyst and retired -- let's get back to that map. since october 7th, we have seen some exchanges of fire between hezbollah forces in 11 on, but this is in beirut. this is a different level of attack. >> exactly. beirut is exactly where that b is in lebanon.

it's halfway up the coastline of lebanon. it also shows that not only is everything at risk here along the border but it is also at risk all the way up to lebanon where you have all of these groups in a not just hamas but also hezbollah's headquarters there. southern lebanon is filled with hezbollah forces and other forces. that makes israel's northern border quite vulnerable. >> several years ago, the united states put out a 5 million dollar reward for information leading to his capture. what is the significance of him being eliminated? >> this is really significant because the senior leader was the head of the political wing and he was also a founder of the military wing. he had his hands throughout hamas's organization. he led a lot of the forces and was responsible for a lot of terrorist attacks which hamas did commit and probably had a hand on the october 7th attacks

as well. >> notably, this comes as we are looking at iran's movements in the red sea. we have been talking about a potential escalation. an israeli attack in lebanon a significant. this area has been seeing a lot of activity. iran is sending military destroyers there. what does it mean for the conflict? >> this is very interesting. this point right in this area is the narrowest point where the red sea comes into the gulf of aden and the arabian sea. this area is easily controlled by forces in lebanon as well. excuse me, in yemen as well as anyone else in this area. that is why the u.s. has deployed forces throughout this region and the iranians are now responding to this by sending their destroyer which allows them to have more confirmation with -- a major proxy of the iranians in this area. what we are talking about here is iran exercising influence

throughout the southern part of the arabian peninsula as well as all the way up the red sea, potentially. >> colonel, i wonder how this might be related to the u.s. pulling the uss gerald ford out of the region. it was on an eight-month mission across the world, essentially, but it is now headed back home to virginia. >> there are some logistical considerations when it comes to this deploying ships like the aircraft carriers. it had been extended for several months. in its deployments, it also, of course, needs to replenish itself. i would say, yes, there are some issues which are related to this in terms of influence. the u.s. is not going to be without a presence. it's going to be critically important for them to continue that. it needs to be there in order to secure global shipping throughout the red sea and the suez canal area. >> the uss eisenhower is not that far away from the area.

i want to point out that iran also has its fingerprints on what is happening in ukraine. they've helped supplement russia's invasion of ukraine. we saw some recent air strikes. at least five people were killed. another 112 were injured during a russian missile attacks around kyiv. there has been an escalation recently in these russian attacks. why? >> this is a really significant thing. the iranians are providing russia with drones among other things to the russians. when you look at all of the different things which have happened around kyiv, you have airstrikes not only in the center of kyiv but in places like the frosty the district and over in kharkiv which is ukraine's second city. what this means is that both russia and iran are working together to try to really create havoc within ukraine. what that means from a ukrainian perspective is that all of their infrastructure is at risk, they're critical infrastructure for the winter, the heating capacity, the power capacity. all of those things are at risk

because the iranians are providing the russians with these weapons and they are doing it quite frequently at a high volume. >> a lot is happening across the world. colonel cedric leighton, we appreciate getting your perspective on all of it. still plenty more news to come on cnn news central. hundreds of people barely escaping with their lives. look at this video. a japanese airliner burst into flames after colliding with another plane on the runway. five people were killed in that smaller plane. what went tragically wrong here? we will break it down. plus, the fbi says there is no evidence of a terror plot in this fiery new year's day crash in upstate new york. we have the latest details on this investigation. after a groundbreaking procedure, doctors say a young patient's new heart valves are growing as he grows. this is a pediatric heart transplant. more on why it is a huge advancement when we come back.

nearly 400 people made it out of a burning plane alive. they only had 90 seconds to get out before the inferno overtook a massive airbus plane. the japan airlines jet burst into flame after it hit a smaller coast guard plane at unaided national airport in

tokyo. cameras captured the moment of impact. the airliner continues to move as the flame intensifies beneath it. one passenger noted the fire was coming out of the engines. local reports say that 17 people were hurt. on the passenger plane, no one was killed. >> that's right. five members of the coast guard in the other plane, they did die in this. a coast guard captain is in critical condition. according to japan's public broadcaster nhk, this is the second major tragedy to hit japan in as many days. that deadly 7.5 magnitude earthquake rocked its west coast on a new year's day. that coast guard plane was actually flying out to help and recover. we have cnn's richard quest, and aviation analyst, miles o'brien, with us. richard, this was so remarkable. so many people were able to get out alive. explain to us how this all happened. >> well, the 358 landed. for whatever reason, there was the other plane on the runway.

there would be something wrong there. the air traffic control gave a wrong instruction or it was one of the pilots miss hearing or misunderstanding. we know where the error is. the air is going to be that early part. once the 350 has hit the dash and it is now on fire, this is where both the miraculous and the ordinary hit together. this is what is supposed to happen. the plane is meant to be able to go on fire for at least 90 seconds and everyone is supposed to be getting off safe and sound. it's known as a survivable accident. the moment you get a survivable accident like this, the regulations say, with half the doors in operable, you have to be able to evacuated the aircraft within 90 seconds. we saw it with an air france 340 some years ago in toronto, a similar case.

i think that the tragedy, well, the awfulness of the mistake which caused it followed by the tragedy of those who died on the coast guard plane can only be matched by, putting it bluntly, the system works. they got people off the planes. it's a miracle, yes but this is what is supposed to happen in these scenarios. it's miraculous nonetheless. >> a best-case scenario given, sadly, the fatalities on the coast guard plane for the airliner. richard, thank you so much for the update. miles, a passenger on the plane and said that they did not, quote, feel a shock or anything. they only realize there was a problem right before the announcement to evacuate. how do you see this as the system a functioning as it's supposed to do when it seems crazy that you see the flames coming out from the bottom of the plane and everyone made it out okay? >> yeah, i mean, something

obviously went wrong here or we would not be talking about it, but the fact that everyone got out is an extraordinary thing. i don't necessarily believe in miracles. this is a lot of hard work and planning and design work. for decades, the aviation industry has been focused on reducing the flammability of interior cabin materials -- the upholstery of the seats, the inside cabin walls themselves. that has bought some time for passengers assuming there is an orderly evacuation. let's give a hat tip to the cabin flight crew for making sure that happened, that people did not reach out before their carry on bags, that they just wind down those slides and did it in 90 seconds. it was a textbook case. you could not come up with a simulation which was better. i think we ultimately will find out why these two planes were in the same place at the same time causing this.

it could have been so much worse. >> miles, it's also interesting to note that not all of these slides deployed, right? they weren't all used. how does that happen? is that something that is built into the system? is that a human decision? >> well, that could very well be a human decision in this case. one of the things that flight crews are trying to do, if you think about a little bit of common sense, if you see fire, don't open those doors. you open the doors away from what appears to be burning or what seemed to be the safest horse. you don't need all of the doors open, as richard pointed out. the regulations are designed that people should be able to get off and that was, we are talking 300 plus people, almost 400 people on board in total. they should be able to get off without all the doors open. i would not focus too much on that. the nose area collapsed. that could have impact on the ability of those sides operate properly. you saw the rear slide.

it was quite precipitous because of that nose down configuration, yet it did its job. i think overall what you have here is a demonstration of the capabilities in a dire emergency with a survivable crash which you can get people out and i think a lot of people in the aviation world are glad to see that in spite of all that we saw. >> as you pointed out, there will be an investigation and hopefully we will learn exactly what went wrong, but given what we have seen on previous occasions, and richard was alluding to a similar process which happened last decade, how likely is it that some miscommunication with air traffic control took place, whether by the operators or by the pilots? >> boris, i think you can take that one to the bank. there is confusion here. you have one frequency, one air traffic controller talking to the landing aircraft. on another frequency is another air traffic controller talking to the aircraft on the ground.

there can be confusion. it's dark. throw in one other factor, here, how long was that flight crew on the coast guard aircraft flying? had they done repeated missions to that day? were they tired or stressed? one other factor to consider, this is something we look at in aviation to improve it, the airbus 350 as one of the first airliners with dual headed displays. that is a little piece of glass which appears in front of the crew and overlays a crucial information, flight data information, sort of augmented information so they don't have to keep looking down at the instruments as they land. an unintended consequence of that safety measure is that it makes it much harder to see what is a pretty dark aircraft which might be beneath you. maybe there will be a recommendation that the landing pilot has that head on the display and the non-landing pilot, the one who is monitoring, does not use the

head up display. things like this are what make aviation say for the next time. >> that is a really interesting point that not many people would think of. miles, thank you for that. that's miles o'brien. still ahead, former president trump could at any moment appeal the rulings in colorado and maine banning him from primary ballots. we will talk to the official who removed the former president in maine. a missing foreign exchange student has been found safe in utah. officials say he and his family were the victims of a cyber kidnapping scam. we wilill have more onon that wn we c come back..

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and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. right now in the united states, history is on pause pending to appeals from former president donald trump. today, his lawyers are expected to formally appeal that historic decision in maine and the one in colorado which kicked him off the primary ballots in those states under

the 14th amendment at his insurrectionist band. >> we don't know how the courts will rule or if the matter will be decided by the supreme court. it sure looks that way. we know that 46% of americans say trump should be disqualified for his actions related to january 6th. that is based on this new washington post university of maryland poll which was completed before these unprecedented bands. the person behind one of those controversial ballot decisions is joining us now. that's main secretary of state shana bellows. thank you for being with us here. do you think that your decision will survive this appeal by trump and possibly survive the supreme court? >> thank you for having me. what i think is important to recognize is that this is the process in maine. maine is unlike other states whereby anyone, any registered voter who challenges a candidate's qualifications must appeal the secretary of state. i did my job that i was

required to do under main law and the constitution in holding a hearing and issuing a decision. the next step under the law is this appeal to maine's supreme court and superior judicial court and then the u.s. supreme court. on the last page of my decision, i suspended the effect of my decision pending the court losses because that is what is important, the rule of law and the constitution. >> do you think it will survive the supreme court? >> i am going to follow the will of the courts. i don't know what the courts will do. whatever the courts will do, i am going to follow the law and follow the direction of the court. i certainly welcome the united states supreme court to weigh in. >> if they disagree with the, what will that mean? >> if they disagree with me, trump will be on at the ballot. like i said, i stayed my decision pending the appeal

because it is important that the process play out. that's what our laws require. >> what do you think that would do to whether your decision was seen as legitimate or not? >> for me, my soul consideration was the oath i swore to the constitution and my obligation as secretary of state to uphold maine election laws. our laws are specific and unique. when i qualify mr. trump for the ballot, based on his signatures, registered main voters have five days to appeal that decision, challenge that decision, and request a hearing. indeed, five registered maine voters, including two former republican state senators, did so. i did what i was required to do to hold that field hearing within two days and then i had to issue my decision within a week of the hearing proceedings. that is how it works in maine. under article one of the

constitution, every state controls its election laws. that is why, for example, in new hampshire, president joseph biden is not on the primary ballot. there are over a dozen democratic candidates and a dozen republican candidates. in maine, mr. chris christie is also not on the ballot because he did not meet the signature requirements under maine law. it's not uncommon to have deferred access to the primary ballot. >> on the flip side, if your decision is held up through the court process and trump's kept off of the ballot, it is possible that your military and overseas ballots which are going out in january, that they will be different than your state's in-person balance. are you prepared for the confusion that could create? >> i want to be crystal clear that as an election administrator with my civil service staff who are

extraordinarily experienced, we are prepared to make sure that there is no confusion to the voters. it's certainly unprecedented for secretary of state to deprive a presidential candidate about access under section three of the 14th amendment. it's also for a presidential candidate to engage in insurrection. that being said, issues about access, issues of access, these are the issues that my team has dealt with for many years. we will uphold the law. voters have appropriate ballots based on the decisions and i am confident of that. >> if you send out ballots, they later stayed out corrected ballots which don't have his name on them, there certainly would be some instances where people turn in ballots which

have his name or even cast their vote, even though they technically can't cast it, for donald trump. what do you do then? >> you are engaging in a hypothetical which may not come to pass, especially because, under maine law, the supreme court is required to issue a decision by january 17th. indeed, it's widely expected that the u.s. supreme court may intervene in that time period. what we are going to do is make preparations and do our job to follow the law and ensure that we protect the voters franchise. that is our job. that is what my civil service staff will do and i am very confident that if we follow the constitution and the rule of law we have to set aside all concerns of politics or partisan considerations as elected officials. we swear an oath to uphold the constitution. that is what is required of us. >> i heard what you said on

that. we're talking logistics here. it is a hypothetical, but it's entirely one which would happen if the supreme court does not act as quickly as you are hoping that they will. that is something, you are pretty confident they will have this settled before that would become an issue. >> i am pretty confident that we are prepared to make sure that there is clarity in the process here in maine and to do right by maine voters as we always have done even during difficult, complex, controversial decisions about that in the past. >> secretary, we very much appreciate your time. all eyes on maine and colorado as we get into this critical point in the race. thank you so much. >> thank you. the suspect in a fiery crash outside a new year's eve concert in upstate new york sped up, we are learning, before barreling toward a cross walk, slamming into another vehicle, then plowing into the

crowd. this is what investigators are saying. the crash killed two people and injured nine others. police say the suspect, michael avery, also died. >> days before the crash, officials say avery went to a car and bought gasoline and several gasoline containers. police say at least 1000 were found at the scene. cnn's brynn gingras has been following this story. police say there is no evidence to this point of terrorism. what more are they learning about his possible motives? >> yeah, it definitely seems there was some sort of intention here, right? authorities can be clear about that. what's not clear is why this location, why this timing, why this method of doing this act. that's what authorities with the joint terrorism task force, the fbi, and local police there in rochester, new york are really trying to get a handle on. they know a little bit about the suspect. as you guys said, michael avery, 35 years old, actually from syracuse, new york. according to police, he traveled from syracuse to rochester several days before

this concert on december 31st. he traveled several days before that, rented a hotel room, rented a car, and then, as you guys mentioned, has also been seen in several places buying cans of gasoline and filling them up with gasoline. that is what caused those gasoline cans, a huge explosion at the scene. what authorities say is that they believe he purposely sped up, drove into this crowd of concert goers who were leaving the concert at the kodak center on new year's eve, really only an hour into new year's day, and two people who were in an opposite car in a rideshare were killed in that crash. nine other people were injured as well and one person has critical injuries from the explosion and crash. a lot of questions here as to the motive. that's really what everyone wants answered at this point. there does seem to be some intent here. it's also important to note, according to the mayor, there are a lot of heroes in this incident. i want you to hear what he has

to say about that. >> it should be noted that there were off to the rochester police officers who sprung into action to try to render aid to the individual that was responsible for this heinous act, not even thinking about their own safety. even in the midst of this despicable tragedy, there is a reminder that there is still goodness in this world. >> yeah, just a tragic incident. peoples lives were altered into people lost their lives. as far as you guys mentioned, avery later -- they also talked to his family members who had hinted at the fact that he might have been suffering some sort of mental illness. there is no clear motive as to why this incident place, guys. >> bring gingras, thank you so much for the update. still to come, police are tracking down a 17-year-old

exchange student who they say was a victim of cyber kidnapping. details on the bizarre plot which law enforcement says is a familiar scam, becoming a more familiar scam.

a missing foreign exchange student has been found safe in utah, thank goodness, but the details of his disappearance are shedding light on a new scam which targets other students just like him. >> yet, police found a 17 year old -- on campus alone and cold camping in the mountains near brigham city. he said he was the victim of cyber kidnapping. his parents back in china even received a ransom photo after he vanished last week. david culver has been tracking all of this. what are investigators saying about the ordeal? >> hey guys. police say scammers manipulated and controlled this young exchange student for more than a week. they threatened his family back in china and convinced the 17 year old to leave his host family in utah and to go camp

out alone in the snow and below freezing temperatures what you can see right there. that's when police in riverdale, utah found him on a sunday. they said he was cold and scared but alive. with him, several cell phones. that's how police say these virtual captors manipulated and control the teen likely from thousands of miles away. they call this, as you point out, cyber kidnapping. they warn scammers are increasingly targeting foreign exchange students, threatening them and their loved ones back in china. here's what riverdale police have to say. they tell the victims to isolate themselves and they monitor them through facetime calls or skype. the cyber kidnappers convince the victim under duress to take photos of themselves which make it appear they are being held captive and send the photos to their parents. and china, zhang's parents were equally terrified, unable to get a hold of their son. in these ransom letters and photos and ultimately calling the school in utah to report

their son missing, but only after transferring the equivalent of roughly $80,000 into chinese bank accounts. in recent months, police across china have been warning international students in particular, chinese students who are either in china or outside studying, that these scammers are impersonating officials. they claim the students when they call them are under investigation so as to scare them to comply. there have been a similar cases targeting folks across the u.s. in recent years. it has the fbi warning scammers are becoming more and more convincing. this is because of technology. a.i. is allowing people to more precisely in person at the voices of your loved ones. when they found zhang on sunday, officials say he wanted to talk to his family and china to make sure that they were okay and then he asked if you could eat a warm cheeseburger. he's still a kid. he did get both of those things. it's terrifying thinking that these scammers took advantage of the family being in different countries, different

time zones, coercing them into handing over so much money. >> it's unsettling. $80,000 is no joke. our as parents going to be able to get back any of it? >> investigators say in these cases it's really difficult if not impossible to do that especially when you think there are multiple bank accounts involved. a lot of these are within china. will be interesting, and i'm intrigued to see how chinese officials will be approaching this going forward, as we know police in a shanghai, guangzhou, and very large cities across china have been issuing warnings about this, but we are interested to see how exactly they are going to go after it. they tend to be very good having lived in china for three years. in this case, if it still in china and if those scammers are still in china, it's possible that they could track it down, but acknowledging the less. >> we will see. let's hope so. david culver, thank you for that. luckily a positive and in for that story that that young man is okay. it could have been different. it was very cold out there in

those below freezing temperatures. up next, a groundbreaking procedure allowing heart repairs to grow with children. we are talking about replaced valves in their heart. how could this change the medical landscape with these types s of procedudures?

an 18-year-old -- dale baby made history when he became the first person in the world to receive a partial heart transplant. now at 20 years old, owen monroe is making history again, because the tissue used to fix his heart is growing along with his heart. >> at the time of his first operation, owen's heart was the size of a strawberry. today, it's about the size of an apricot. this type of growth was a long sought after goal for this type of repair. let's bring in meg terrel. walk us through this groundbreaking procedure. >> this is a great example of really good news. this baby, of course, was born with a genetic heart defect and he needed immediate care. the previous option would have been to use nonfunctioning

donor heart valves and vessels. the issue with those, they don't grow along with the child. as they get bigger they need to have more surgeries to get bigger valves and replacement parts. there is also only a 50% chance of survival with that approach. with this partial heart transplant, you are actually donating functioning valves and vessels, and the goal is that those will grow along with the baby. in this case, that is exactly what has happened. we saw this new paper published in the journal of the american medical association, now going out at this time when monroe went through the surgery successfully, and is now 20 months out from this happening and is meeting all of his development milestones, according to his family, and doing great. >> that is fantastic. is this how they expect it to keep going? is he going to need some other surgeries once he does get a little older?

>> the hope is that he won't. the hope really is that the donor parts will keep growing along with him. of course, it's important to be able to keep following this and see it done many more times to see how well it continues to work, but he will need immunosuppressive drugs because he has these donated parts, but the hope is that it won't be the way it was before, where he would have to get multiple surgeries. >> on a question of this getting replicated, have there been other kids that have gotten the same kind of transplant? >> there have now. owen was the first, but since, there have been 12 more of these procedures, including nine at duke health, where this was pioneered, and the doctor who pioneered this work. when owen's parents asked the doctor, how many times have you done this before? he said, i have done it five times on piglets. owen and his family are really, true pioneers. >> good for him. i hope nothing but help for his future.

>> what a beautiful kid. stomach the president of harvard says she is resigning, the very latest on our top story, when we come back.