the premise that we're all created equal is the opening line in our american story, and we don't promise equal outcomes. we strive to deliver equal opportunity. the idea that success does not depend on being born in a wealth of privilege, depends on effort and merit. you can be born into nothing and work your way into something extraordinary. and to a kid that goes to college, maybe like michelle the first in his or her family, that means everything. and the fact is if we hadn't made a commitment as a country to send more of our people to college, michelle, me, maybe a few of you, would not be here today. my grandfather wasn't rich, but when he came home from the war he got the chance to study on the g.i. bill. i grew up with a single mom. she had me when she was 18 years old. there are a lot of circumstances

where that might have waylayed her education for good. but there were structures in place that allowed her to go on and get a ph.d.. michelle's dad was a shift worker at the city water plant. mom worked as a secretary. they didn't go to college. but there were structures in place that allowed michelle to take advantage of those opportunities. as michelle mentioned, our parents and grandparents made sure we knew that we'd have to work for it, that nobody was going to hand us something. education was not a passive enterprise. you just tip your head over and somebody pours education into your ear. you got to work for it. and i've told the story my mother when i was living overseas she'd wake me up before dawn to do a correspondence

courses in english before i went to the other school. i wasn't happy about that. but with her hard work, but also with scholarships, also with student loans and with support programs in place, we were able to go to some of the best colleges in the country even though we didn't have a lot of money. every child in america should have the same chance. so over the last five years we've worked hard in a variety of ways to improve these -- these, you know, mechanisms to get young people where they need to be and to knock down barriers that are preventing them from getting better prepared for the economies that they're going to face. we've called for clearer higher standards in our schools. and 45 state and the district of columbia have answered that call so far. we've set a goal of training 100,000 new math and science teachers over the next ten years. and the private sector has

already committed to help train 40,000. we've taken new steps to help students stay in school. and today the high school dropout rate is the lowest it's been in 40 years. something that's rarely advertised. the dropout rate among hispanic students, by the way, has been cut in half over the last decade. but we still have to hire more good teachers and pay them better. we still have to do more training and development and ensure that the curriculums are ones that maximize the chances for students success. when young people are properly prepared in high school, we've got to make sure they can afford to go to college. so we took on a student loan system that was giving billions of dollars of taxpayer dollars to big banks. and we said let's give that money directly to students. as a consequence we were able to double the aid that goes to millions of students. and today more young people are earning college degrees than

ever before. so we made progress there, but as i've discussed with some of you, we're still going to have to make sure rising tuition doesn't price middle class out of a college education. the government's not going to be able to continually subsidize a system in which higher education inflation's going up faster than health care inflation. so i've laid out a plan to bring down costs and make sure students are not saddled with debt before they even start out in life. even after all these steps that we've taken over the last five years, we still have a long way to go to unlock the doors of higher education to more americans and especially lower income americans. we're going to have to make sure they're ready to walk through those doors. the added value of a college diploma has nearly doubled since michelle and i were undergraduates. unfortunately today only 30% of low income students enroll in college right after high school. and far worse by their mid-20s

only 9% earn a bachelor's degree. so if we as a nation can expand opportunity and reach out to those young people and help them not just go to college but graduate from college or university, it could have a transformative effect. there's this huge cohort of talent that we're not tapping. now, what this meeting today tells me is we've got dedicated citizens across the country who are ready to stand up and meet those challenges. and what i want to really do is highlight some of the commit ms that have been made here today. so we know that not enough low income students are taking the steps required to prepare for college. that's why i'm glad the university of chicago, my neighbor and the place where michelle and i both worked in

the past, is announcing a $10 million college success initiative that will reach 10,000 high schools over the next five years. it's why i mentor, a mentoring program that began 15 years ago with just 49 students in the south bronx, has committed to matching 20,000 new students with mentoring in more than 20 states over the next five years. we also know that too many students don't apply for the schools that are right for them. they may sometimes underestimate where they can succeed, where they could go. there may be a mismatch in terms of what their aspirations are and the nature of what's offered at the school that's close by and they kind of assume, well, that's my only option. so uva, for example, is going to experiment with new ways to contact high achieving low income students directly,

encourage them to apply. organizations like the college board are going to work with colleges to make it easier for students to apply to more schools for free. i know sometimes for those of you in the university administrations the perception may be that, you know, $100 application fees is not a big deal. but for a lot of these students that's enough of a barrier that they just don't end up applying. number three, we know that when it comes to college advising and preparing for tests like the a.c.t. and the s.a.t., low income kids are not on a level playing field. you know, we call these standardized tests. they're not standardized. my daughters, by the time they're in seventh grade at sidwell school here are already

getting all kinds of advice and this and that and the other. the degree of preparation that many of our kids here are getting in advance of actually taking this test tilts the playing field. it's not fair. and it's gotten worse. i was telling michelle, you know, when i was taking the s.a.t., i just barely remembered to bring a pencil. that's how much preparation i did. but, you know, the truth of the matter is is that we don't have a level playing field when it comes to so-called standardized tests. so we've got a young man here today named lawrence harris, who knows this better than most. lawrence went to the university of georgia. and like a lot of first-generation college students, it wasn't easy for him. he had to take remedial classes, he had to work two part-time jobs to make ends meet. at one point he had to leave

school for a year to help support his mom and baby brother. those are the kinds of just day-to-day challenges that a lot of these young people with enormous talent are having to overcome. now, he stuck with it. he graduated. but now he's giving back. he's made it his mission to help other young people like him graduate as a college advisor at clark central high school in athens, georgia. and today the national college advising corps, the program that placed lawrence in clark central is announcing plans to add 129 more advisor who is will serve more than 80,000 students over the next three years. finally, we know once low-income students arrive on campus, michelle i think spoke eloquently to her own experience on this, they often learn even if they were at the top of their high school class, they still have a lot of catching up to do with respect to some of their

peers in the classroom. bunker hill community college is addressing this by giving more incoming students the chance to start catching up over the summer before their freshman year. and we've got 22 states and the district of columbia who have joined together in a commitment to dramatically increase the number of students who complete college-level math and english their first year. so these are just a sampling of the more than 100 commitments that your organizations and colleges are making here today. and that's an extraordinary first step, but we got more colleges and universities than this around the country. we got more business leaders around the country and philanthropies around the country. and so we have to think of this as just the beginning. we want to do something like this again. and we want even more colleges

and universities and businesses and non for profits to take part. for folk who is are watching this who were not able to be here today, we want you here next time. start thinking about your commitments now. we want you to join us. for those who were able to make commit ms today, i want to thank you for doing your part to make better the life of our country. because what you're doing here today means that there are a bunch of young people, like troy and like michelle and like me, who suddenly may be able to see a whole new world open up before them that they didn't realize was there. so i'll end with a great story that i think speaks to this. there's a former teacher here today named nick airman. where's nick?

so here's nick right here. five years ago nick founded a new york city nonprofit called blue engine. and they recruit recent college graduates to work as teaching assistants in public high schools that serve low-income communities. teaming up to help students build the skills they need to enter college ready for college. the first group of students to work with those teaching assistants are seniors now. one of them stefan rodriguez, who also is here, where is he? there he is. good looking young guy right here. could not speak a word of english when he moved to the united states from the dominican republic at age of 9. didn't speak much more english by the time he entered sixth grade. today, with the support of a tightly knit school community, he's one of the top students in his senior class at washington

heights expeditionary learning schools, or wheels. last week he and his classmates put on their shirts, unfurled a banner and marched through washington heights in front of cheering crowds. you would have thought it was macy's parade. but the crowds were parents and teachers, the flags were college pennants. the march was to the post office where they mailed in their college applications. [ applause ] and he just heard back, the son of a factory worker who didn't speak much english just six years ago won a competitive scholarship to attend dickinson college this fall. [ applause ] everywhere you go you've got

stories like estefan's and stories like troy's. but we don't want these to be the exceptions. we want these to be the rule. that's what we owe our young people. and that's what we owe this country. we all have a stake in restoring that fundamental american idea that says it doesn't matter where you start. what matters is where you end up. and as parents and as teachers and as business and philanthropic and political leaders and as citizens, we've all got a role to play. so i'm going to spend the next three years as president playing mine. and i look forward to working with you on the same team to make this happen. thank you very much, everybody. [ applause ] >> you've been watching president obama, the first lady as well. a special summit at the white house dealing with education trying to make it more affordable for low-income students and disadvantaged communities. the president in a rare occasion really using many different personal examples from his own

life as well as the first lady's mentioning sasha and malia as well as their grandparents and parents and education impacted their lives personally. also a big weekend for the first lady. see how her journey from the south side of chicago goes to the white house. an extraordinary journey, michelle obama turns 50, that is tomorrow night 10:00 eastern right here on cnn. here's what we're working for on "around the world." no future. there's no future for my children. my children cannot go to their schools. >> he helped u.s. forces in iraq. well, now he is hunted by insurgents. ahead, trying to stay alive in iraq as violence flares. plus, the hunt for a tiger on the loose in india. thousands of terrified people, they're staying inside after a man-eating tiger kills seven people. this is betsy. her long day of pick ups and drop offs

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breaking news now, we are following this. a brush fire, this is in southern california, gotten out of control now. it is spilling down hills, it is burning homes, threatening many other homes as well.

forcing people to evacuate this area. we're looking at live pictures. this is happening in the town of glendora, about 30 miles east of downtown los angeles. officials now are calling in more helicopters. you see those aerials live just the flames licking through some of those homes. those helicopters are going to be dropping water on the fires. dry conditions really helping this fire spread and spread rapidly. we're getting another look there, even a closer look at just that being consumed -- those homes and buildings being consumed. our casey wian is near the ground there. tell us what you know. >> reporter: well, suzanne, i'm in azuza, california, very near the community of glendora, about 25 miles east of los angeles. you can see the flames behind me. we're at the very end of a cul-de-sac, a residential neighborhood at the top of a hill. those flames you can see only about 150 yards or so away from homes. this residential area has now

been all but completely evacuated. just a few homeowners gathering their possessions and getting out of here. the police came up and down the street a couple times telling everyone to get out. you can see the concern, all this dry brush between these flames and where our position is. we've seen planes, fixed wing aircraft, helicopters dropping water, fire retardant on these flames. fire officials really making an aggressive effort to go after this fire, which is only officially about 125, maybe 150 acres so far. but the big concern as you mentioned dry conditions and hot weather. california has been in a drought now, it's entering its third year. we've got santa ana winds, very dry seasonal hot winds forecasted for today. so they want to get this fire knocked down. still a little after 9:00 in the morning here, so still relatively cool. but this afternoon it's expected to get a lot hotter. there could be more winds. and that could make this a very, very dangerous situation. right now though it seems that fire officials in this area

firefighters are having some success in stopping this fire from spreading into this neighborhood, suzanne. >> casey, we're taking a look at those live pictures, those aerials in particular. it looks like these homes are spread out. there's quite a bit of brush and woods between each one of these homes in that cul-de-sac, which you are very close to. the firefighters, do they have any sense of how much time the people have who are next door, not really close to this home but certainly in the neighborhood? how much time do they have to get that fire out before it might spread to some of those houses nearby? >> reporter: hard to say, but in the neighborhood we're in right now the flames are only 100 to 150 yards away from their home. so they doept have a lot of time. right now the conditions are cool and as i mentioned not much wind. you'll be able to see our picture here. a fixed-wing aircraft approaching this fire. you know, a lot of it depends on the weather conditions. these fires are very

unpredictable. it gets hotter, the winds start blowing, they have less time. right now in the neighborhood we're in everyone has been asked to evacuate. it appears that everyone almost has done so. they've got sprinklers running in the neighborhood as a line of defense. but it's a very, i would say tenuous, situation right now. and it seems where we are though firefighters have the upper hand. >> that's a good thing. we see the smoke right behind you, casey. we appreciate it. we'll get back to you as soon as there's more information. breaking news, that fire is spreading very quickly. and of course casey is all over this looking at the evacuations and making sure people are safe. we're also working on this for "around the world." this search, this is a man-eating tiger. i kid you not. it has killed seven people in india. it is on the loose. there are thousands of villagers that are remaining indoors while the hunt is going on. ♪

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in iraq today, more innocent people died. violence there is just spinning out of control.

we're talking about faluja just west of baghdad. this killed two people, wounding two others. just in the past 24 hours, imagine this, more than 60 people died violently across iraq. bombings, shootings, targeting iraqi security forces as well as civilians. one iraqi man who fears for his life, he is asking for a safer life here in the united states. he says it's only fair because he helped save american lives during the iraq war. my colleague and co-worker michael holmes has the story. >> back in 2004 as the insurgency in iraq grew, al qaeda fighters in falluja were striking american forces every day. ieds favorite weapon. it was a cop back then but hated what the extremists were doing to his city and his people. so he decided to help the americans. even now he does not regret what

he did. >> translator: yes, of course, fighting against al qaeda is right because they're killing civilians, soldiers, police, innocent people, and those who work with the u.s. marines. >> he shows us photographs with his american colleagues and letters of commendation from several u.s. offices praising his intelligence work describing how he saved iraqi and american lives. the insurgents were less pleased with his work, but they were patient and got their revenge in 2009. >> translator: i left my home in the morning to get some shopping. and when i was driving, suddenly blew up. i lost my legs and got major damage in my wrist. >> in the years that followed omar steered clear of falluja returning every month or so in secret to see his family for a day or two. it worked until those al qaeda-linked fighters came back

in numbers and locals started to flee. on january 4 when the militants were back in falluja, omar risked a trip to the city to get his family out. the gunmen caught him. omar thought he was a dead man. >> translator: they told me you are omar, you are working with the american troops and iraq police. they tied my hands to my back and took me to a mosque they controlled. >> omar says the militants were pleased with the results of the bombing that maimed him, but it wasn't until his tribal leaders made some calls that they eventually let him go saying life with his injuries was a fitting punishment for his work with the americans. today, still fearful, omar and his family move from house to house well away from falluja. he has his application in the u.s. asylum because of his work with the americans and the clear risk to his life. as with many other iraqis

though, the paperwork has stalled. he's heard nothing in a year. >> translator: no future. there's no future for my children. my children cannot go to their schools. i cannot work in falluja. i also cannot work in baghdad because of the militia. >> that's a very powerful story. michael, thank you for bringing that to us from baghdad. michael, you look at him and you see his situation. are there many omars in iraq who essentially are in danger, helped the americans, saved lives and are held up by paperwork? >> reporter: hey, suzanne. well, sadly, yes. the answer is yes. thousands of iraqis who worked with american troops during the war have gotten their visas, have their green cards and living lives in the united states. i know probably half a dozen of them. but there are thousands of others in omar's position where the paperwork has stalled. thousands of them.

and, you know, i remember coming here during the war the many times i came here being out on patrols with american troops and the translators who were there, for example, they wore masks back then so they weren't recognized in their community. the risks they took really were putting their lives on the line. but it wasn't just them, it was other workers, administrative, could have been any number of roles. and, yeah, thousands of them still waiting. omar hasn't moved for a year. i spoke to a guy today, hasn't heard anything for 18 months. >> michael, you talk to these, is there anybody that feel a sense of regret that they helped americans in that fight, in that battle? it seems like he doesn't have any regrets, amazingly so. >> reporter: no. he was actually very proud of it. i mean, the day that he went out and saw these guys laying an ied in his house and they threatened to cut his head off, he said enough, enough. this has a present day relevance where a lot of people in places

like falluja and romani, they remember the days when al qaeda was running the show there. in many ways al qaeda is an ally of convenience to the sunni tribes because they feel excl e excluded and all the other reasons they've discussed over the last few days. but they don't like these guys. they don't like the way they ran the town when they were there, their style of extreme governance. a lot of people there were very proud of working against al qaeda. >> yeah, you've got to just be amazed at the kind of bravery and determination of omar. and many people there, many iraqis as you say just ordinary citizens just trying to live and help of course the american forces when they were there. michael, thank you. as always, we really appreciate it. good to see you. please stay safe. seven deaths in two weeks blamed on a hungry tiger with a taste for human flesh. we are talking about villagers in northern india, they want that man-eating tiger killed.

wildlife activists, they want to take it to a sanctuary. anna corin, she's got the back story. >> the hunt is on for a man-eating tiger in india following the latest attack in the last two weeks. the female tiger has claimed her seventh victim after the remains of a woman's body was found in a forest. the tigress is thought to have strayed from a home about to 2,000 tigers. animal rights activists have condemned the move calling on rangers to instead tranquilize the tiger, an endangered species, and return it to the park. >> there are only about 1700 tigers that are left in the wild in india. a century ago there were about 100,000. we're following this new jersey governor chris christie heading to florida this weekend. this is a trip that could be critical for his political future. that story, plus his first

appearance before voters since the bridge scandal broke. that coming up next.

welcome back. the next few days very important for governor chris christie. might get an idea of just how much damage, if any, that bridge scandal has done to his presidential prospects. now, christie's former aides are accused, as you might recall, closing lanes to punish a mayor who didn't support their boss. christie said he had no knowledge of this. today he's been at the jersey shore to talk about other things, hurricane sandy recovery. this was the first appearance before voters since the political storm hit. here's what he said. >> i suspect there are few more cameras here today than we might have originally thought for a sandy event, but i hope all these people with cameras will frequent the local businesses so that -- [ applause ] -- so you can get something out of this today other than seeing my smiling face.

and no one, i can assure you, ever told me or anybody on my team that it was going to be easy. hadn't been up to this point, and there's all kinds of challenges, as you know, that come every day out of nowhere to test you. >> well, today a state assembly committee could issue subpoenas for some of christie's aides. one of those tests, a panel meets today. wolf is joining us to talk about christie's big week ahead. he seemed to have a little humor about this when he was saying i kind of recognize more publicity here, i know why the spotlight is on it more because of some of these scandals that at least he's somewhat involved with here. but the big weekend of course before the republican donors who essentially could bankroll a presidential run. how important is this weekend when he's in front of his base? >> it's very important because in addition to being the governor of new jersey, he's also chair of the republican

governors association. his job is to help get fellow republicans elected to become governors of various states, re-elected in the cases where there are currently republican governors. he's going to go out and raise a lot of money. and that is often seen as a springboard to a potential presidential run. americans like governors particularly as presidents over the years. a lot of governors have gone on to the white house. so he was widely seen as one of the key front runners for the republicans before this george washington bridge scandal erupted. and how he handles it, what happens in the coming days, weeks and months will clearly be very critical in whether or not he becomes a viable republican presidential candidate. i suspect he's going to be well-received in florida this weekend. he's going to be campaigning for the current republican governor down in florida raising some money. but let's see what happens in these investigations now that there's subpoena power, attorneys on all sides involved, a lot of political adversaries he has they're going to be going

through all the record, all the e-mail, all the phone calls. we'll see what emerges. >> it's not going away clearly. some of these donors, big donors, might actually hold onto their money a little longer until the scandal blows over and see what kind of impact this has in the longer term. could this be potential for other candidates to move in and take advantage of that? >> yes. if he slips, for example, there are other republican governors, whether scott walker or john kasich of ohio or jeb bush, former governor of florida, there are other republican governors out there might see an opening and say this might be the moment, this might be the opportunity as far as the white house is concerned that i've been looking for. so, yeah, if he slips right now, if he goes down, there will be openings for others. and still as we all know pretty early in the process. i think that formally they're really not going to have to start making announcements until after the november midterm elections, but they've got to start preparing.

it's never too early if you want to be president of the united states. >> certainly when it comes to raising money. wolf, appreciate it. he's criticized the obama administration in which he served and now former secretary robert gates is going to be answering some tough questions from our own wolf blitzer. this is "the situation room" today at 5:00 eastern. and now for the first time ever the vatican is being forced to defend itself in public over sex child abuse in the catholic church. the big question of course, did the church protect abusive priests? hi, i'm terry and i have diabetic nerve pain.

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those who have had a drug or alcohol problem may be more likely to misuse lyrica. ask your doctor about lyrica today. it's specific treatment for diabetic nerve pain. the vatican got a grilling on the global sex child abuse scandal. for the first time now the vatican is being forced to defend itself at length and in public against allegations that it enabled the rape of thousands of children by protecting pedophile priests. five top vatican officials, they're in the hot seat today facing some tough questions from a u.n. committee in geneva that's wrapping up an investigation on the church scandal. they spoke just a short time ago with our senior vatican analyst john allen, about what's going on. >> well, i think at one level the presentation made today by these two senior vatican officials played very well with

the child abuse experts in geneva. there was a firm commitment to a zero tolerance policy. one of these vatican officials described what he called the nonnegotiable principle. that the paramount has to be the protection of children. but i think that favorable response was also tinged with a degree of skepticism about how effective the vatican is going to be and actually implementing the zero tolerance policy on the ground. because of course these officials also insisted that the vatican is not the direct supervisor of the more than 400,000 catholic priests around the world. so the question will be are these just words on paper or is this zero tolerance policy really going to make a difference on the ground? >> let's talk about the pope. pope francis very popular for many different things. there is some criticism of his

handling of sex child abuse cases. for example, you had november the vatican refusing to give the u.n. any details about its own investigations into those alleged sexual abuse cases of children. and you've got these reports this month saying the vatican refused an extradition request from poland for an archbishop being accused. is he any different this pope from his predecessors? >> francis clearly profiles as a performer on many fronts and he says he wants to be a reformer on this sex abuse issue as well. he tightened laws in july. he's created a new commission to promote best practices on detecting and preventing abuse. there was a news flash out of today's hearing. it was that one of the vatican officials confirmed that in the case of po lish archbishop you mentioned, the papal democrat -- not in the position of defracking him but also subjecting him to a criminal procedure that could end up with

him spending time behind bars in a vatican jail, a little like the papal butler you may remember accused of stealing papers off pope benedict's desk. you're quite right, critics have raised the question of whether all that is going to be adequate. i think honestly, suzanne, what critics are looking for is for this pope, for any pope, but francis in particular. >> right. >> not merely to verbally confirm his commitment to protecting children, but to discipline bishops when they drop the ball. i think that's the piece of puzzle that has to fall into place before critics will be satisfied. >> sure. that's a piece of news when dealing with that archbishop. final thing here, john, what can the u.n. do if this investigation finds that the vatican didn't comply with the u.n. convention on the rights of the child? >> well, they don't have any power to force the nations to do anything. what they rely upon is what we might call moral authority or the power of shaming. they are expected to issue a set

of recommendations on the back of today's hearing. and i think the hope is that public opinion will compel the vatican to take those recommendations very seriously. the point they're trying to make, suzanne, is that the world is watching. >> yeah. the world is watching. we certainly hope for progress on that front. thank you so much, john. really appreciate it. and the oscar nominations, they're in. who's going to take home the gold? who got snubbed? that's next. what if you could shrink your pores just by washing your face? [ female announcer ] neutrogena® pore refining cleanser. alpha-hydroxy and exfoliating beads work to clean and tighten pores so they can look half their size. pores...shrink 'em down to size! [ female announcer ] pore refining cleanser. neutrogena®. of their type 2 diabetes with non-insulin victoza®.

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just so cool, '70s crime paper "american hustle" and "gravity" leading oscar nominees announced earlier today. both films getting ten nominations. the film "12 years a slave" about a man being taken from freedom into slavery just one nomination behind. gill robertson with the african-american film critics association joins eing us from los angeles. first of all, i love "12 years a slave," i got a chance to see that. but i know the top two critics loved "american hustle" starring christian bale got a ranking 93% fresh. that's huge, right? what does it say about the chances of winning? >> well, it says that it is a critical darling. what it says also is david o

russell has his dream team together, suzanne. david o' russell put this team of actors he love together, he worked with amy adams on "the fighter," put them together and you add jeremy renner to the pot and it became movie magic. it's good acting. it's a great script. and he made a great film. >> certainly. gill, what do you think about it, the top nominations "american hustle," "gravity," would that have been your call? >> you know, i mean certainly both films were on afco's top ten list. and both films, you know, are doing very well at the box office and also learned a lot of, you know, praise from film critics from across the country. so it's not a surprise at all. >> all right. not a surprise. weigh-in, a lot of people talking tom hanks should have gotten a nomination for "captain phillips." he pretty much carried that film

showing extraordinary relationship between a somali hostage there. what do you make? >> i would disagree with you, suzanne. tom hanks carried that film because he did get a nomination for best supporting actor. here's something about the best actor race today. it was so packed and so loaded, there were a lot of fantastic performances by oscars. so i wouldn't call anyone a snub in this category because there was just no way to fit in all the really good performances this year. i mean, we're seeing nominees on the screen right now. who are you going to take out? >> yeah, i mean, isn't that an amazing problem? they're just all so good this year. pretty incredible here. >> yeah. >> gil, i want to talk about the actress nominations here. two long-time leading ladies on the list. of course ju

judy dench for her role and meryl streep for "august: osage county". >> it's a great group of women, but i have to say i think meryl streep is going to walk away with it. she literally walks on water. and she is such a strong actress. she's really going to be tough to beat. >> oh, i disagree. can i disagree with gil? >> feel free. jump in. >> gil's the critic and i'm just the entertainment reporter, so he's got the mind. but i think this is kate's category to win. i think she's the one to beat. her performance in "blue jasmine" was fabulous. listen to this little nugget here, guys. you know how women -- and it is true we always talk about there aren't a lot of roles for women of a certain age in hollywood. amy adams is the only nominee under the age of 40 in this

category, and she's 39. so let's hear it for all of us women of a certain age. go girls. >> there is hope without even talking about how old we are. gil, nischelle, thank you so much. we'll be looking to see who's actually going to win. >> absolutely. >> thank you. want to give a little love to the foreign language film category, the oscar nominees are "the broken circle breakdown" from belgium. "the great beauty," from italy. "the hunt" from denmark, "the missing picture" from cambodia and "omar" from the palestinian territories. if they made a movie about the air in beijing right now, it would have to be a horror film. that's right. because the pollution there it's so bad it's scary, it's also dangerous. scientists barely have room on their instruments to even measure this stuff. that story coming up next. ♪

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smog in beijing is so bad right now that it's actually dangerous. there are some readings that show the level of pollution in the air is about 25 times higher than the level that's considered safe. the visibility, it's so bad that several highways had to be closed. people say they can't even see the skyscrapers that are right across the street.

meteorologist chad myers joins us. god, chad, what is going on over there? that is really bad. >> well, it never gets good. you know, i mean, it never really gets to be healthy in beijing. especially the winter when the air doesn't move very much. we have these stagnant high pressure systems and a lot of coal used to heat homes. making power, coal, cars, all this stuff in beijing all making kind of a mess. we're as good as 161 for the unhealthy measure earlier this week, but we were as bad as 671. >> good lord. >> those numbers don't mean anything except this happened in phoenix this year when a dust storm, the haboob rolled through and you couldn't see across the street. so this is how bad it truly is in beijing day after day, hour after hour. this is what it looked like. you could actually see through the clouds, through the smog on sunday. now i'm going to move you ahead to yesterday. you can't even see the ground from the satellite. >> that's unbelievable. >> people can't see the buildings across the street. >> i've been to beijing and people wear masks.

they just walk around wearing masks all the time here. why has it gotten to this point? why is it so bad? >> now you have all this piled up against the mountains, it can't get away. the wind can't blow it away from the mountains. think about beijing, think about the topography to the west. it's almost like denver. if you heat every house in denver with a coal stove, we could make the same type of pollution that they have in beijing in denver, but we don't. we have a lot more better practices than that and the cars are polluting as well. >> and explain this to us. how do you breathe? what does it feel like when you're breathing in that level of pollution and smog? >> we talked about the dust storm a bit ago. dust and dirt and sand is different than what they're breathing in. these small tiny particlats are getting into the lungs. it's like black lung. my grandfather died of black lung. he was a coal miner in pennsylvania. every time he'd come home he'd cough all this stuff up. that's what they have in their lungs. it's taking years off these peoples lives. no question. >> it's a shame. is there anything they can do? >> they can switch power plants,

they can switch to different fossil fuels that make less pollution. and what they've done so far is they've actually shifted their workweek to work seven days, but not everybody works seven days. it's not monday through friday. some people work wednesday to sunday, some thursday to monday to spread out the pollution a bit. >> because you can't breathe the air. >> yep. >> chad, thank you, appreciate it. it's kind of sad actually. well, thanks for watching "around the world." "cnn newsroom" starts right now. have a good afternoon. right now a special committee, special council and subpoenas, it's a big day in the chris christie organization and both sides gearing up for a major fight. also right now hillary clinton under scrutiny, is she unbeatable in 2016, or could benghazi still cost her the presidency? and right now 500 firefighters are trying to contain a fire outside of los angeles. homes are in danger and mandatory evacuations are now underway. we're going to the scene for