is a program going on there right now, as well as what we are seeing down at the national mall. and i'm going to toss over now as we look at these pictures with so many beautiful memories, memorializations today. wolf blitzer, he's are such an important day happening all over the country. >> certainly is brianna. commemorating an infamous day in american history, looking to the future as well as a new administration takes shape. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. welcoming viewers here in the united states and around the world. these are live pictures coming in from hon lou honolulu from harbor, the pearl harbor hickam joint base there. the ceremony just beginning to get under way. the ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the attack on pearl harbor. here in washington, vice president-elect mike pence attends a separate ceremony together with arizona senator

john mccain who will deliver the keynote address. live pictures you see there coming in from the world war ii memorial here in washington, d.c. let's listen in to the national anthem. [ playing the national anthem ] ♪ >> we're going to continue to watch all of these ceremonies commemorating the 75th anniversary of the pearl harbor attack. we'll get back there. also covering the transition of power of the incoming donald trump administration. president-elect trump offered iowa governor branstad as ambassador to china. a decision could come next week at his choice for secretary of state.

asked whether former adversary mitt romney system has a chance of becoming the secretary of state. >> we had such tremendous difficulty together and now i think we've come a long bway bu the answer is, yes, he does. it's not about us it's what's good for the country and i'm able to put this stuff behind us. >> jason carroll joins us from outside trump tower in new york city with more on the transition. jason, first of all, what can you tell us about trump's choice for ambassador to china? the iowa governor still has to be confirmed, of course, by the united states senate. >> reporter: wolf, a lot of people see it as logical choice. a little background about the governor. the longest serving governor of iowa, from 1983 to 1999. again in 2011. a man who has a very close relationship with the chinese president. the two met back in 1985. they've known each other for decades. thought is perhaps this is the type of person who would be in

place to perhaps ease tensions with china. especially after that call, that controversial call with taiwan. again, this is a man who has supported donald trump early on, and a man once again, wolf, who has very close ties with the chinese president. >> what about the other meetings the president-elect, jason, is having at trump to you jer who else is he meeting with? >> reporter: taking a lot of meetings. you know that. meeting today with rahm emanuel, chicago's mayor. some people think that's somewhat of an unusual meeting considering how much donald trump criticized the way that the chicago city, the city of chicago was handling the city. and also meeting with head of cke restaurants, perhaps he's in the running for labor department. also scott pruett attorney general of oklahoma, the thought perhaps a contender for the epa and also meeting with north carolina pat mccrory. the governor there just lost his

re-election bid in a very, very tight race there. tightest in north carolina history losing to his democratic rival by some 10,000 votes. still taking up a lot of meetings today. tomorrow, for his part, wolf, expected to head to ohio meeting with victims and first responders from the attack at osu. >> the president-elect may be softening his hard-line stance on illegal immigration. turned to president obama for staff and cabinet choices, we're told as well by the president-elect. those revelations came from interviews following trump's selection of "time" magazine's person of the year. talking more about this, our pun. susan paige with us, washington bureau chief for "usa today." cnn political analyst david gregory and chief political analyst gloria borger as well. in a that "time" magazine inter1r50ud, he granted an interview to "time" magazine in

regard to his selection as person of the year. said this about the children, the kids brought heillegally. he said they got brought here at a very young age. worked here, gone to school here. some were good students. some have wonderful jobs and in never-never land because they don't know what's going to happen. about 11 million undocumented immigrants in the united states. a lot of children as well. president obama wants the children at least to have some sort of legal status, and donald trump, the president-elect, now indicating he might be ready for that. >> as we all know the history of this, the president signed an executive order on this. tied up in the courts, and it was a tie vote at the supreme court. now it's headed back down to the courts, and the president-elect when he becomes president could, with the stroke of a pen, undo what barack obama did. it sounds to me in listening to him here, and i know he spoke

with chicago mayor rahm emanuel about this this morning, who handed him a petition from other big city mayors. emanuel said, you can do this to these people. they have handed over their names and addresses to the government in good faith, and how do you just reverse that? and like with so many things with donald trump, it was almost as if he was hearing this for the first time. and said -- oh, wait a minute. that would not be a humane thing to do. so you can just see the wheels spinning here, and maybe he is rethinking what he might do through executive action, or legislation. >> in a separate interview with nbc's "today" show today they announced the person of the year on the td show. he then called in by phone. susan, he was once again very, very effusive in his praise of the outgoing president, president obama. said that they'd been talking and he's been getting advice, recommendations from president

obama. listen to this -- >> i have asked him what he would think of this one and that one. i've asked him what he thinks are the biggest problems of the country. what are some of the greatest assets going forward. and we have a very good dialogue, and i must tell you, you know, i never met him before this. and i never spoke to him before this. i really, i do like him. i love getting his ideas. i would say that, yes, i take his recommendations very seriously, and there are some people that i will be appointing and in one case have appointed where he thought very highly of that person. >> pretty impressive comments about, about the president, the outgoing president from the incoming president. >> especially when you consider they're previous relationship was one of incredible hostility why they hadn't met. donald trump had questioned the legitimacy of barack obama's presidency, and barack obama could not have been more fiercely critical of donald trump during the campaign. but now, different rules, and

you see, i think, president obama seeing a relationship, building a relationship with donald trump as one way to protect parts of are his legacy that trump attacked during the campaign. one example would be his treatment of the dreamers. this was interesting. this one of the comments he made in the "time" magazine interview being willing to consider a very different step from that, that he lined out during the campaign. >> when you think about it, david gregory, what these two men, the president-elect and the president had to say about each other during the campaign, president obama said donald trump was unfit to be president of the united states. temperamentally unfit to be president of the united states. donald trump said president obama was the worst president in american history. founded isis, if you will. those were pretty stark comments. >> oh, forget it. >> right. >> it's as if it was -- like a parade, a political parade in a way, in donald trump's mind, and now, yeah. that's a step you do to get elected. now, he's never done this before. you talk with people who met with him, commenting on the

outside. he is influenced by people he's talking to, revealing things to, maybe hadn't thought through. whether torture and mattis, and sanctuary cities and mayor emanuel? maybe tim cook and bill gates calling thinking about climate change. meeting with al gore. that's refreshing. we'd want all political leaders get good ideas from all quarters and i think he will be influenced by president obama. the issue of the dreamers is important. approaching it pragmatically. he has bigger goals than nag will tear the social fabric of the country apart. college campuses are really, really worked up and very concerned about the issue of the dreamers. they want to be sanctuary campuses. you see that in sanctuary cities. the city of chicago saying to the president-elect, we won't cooperate with federal authorities at all if you're coming here to do raids to deport people. it's is signal that this

priorities are where they are. the economy being a jobs presen presence. >> i look at this as if it was last season's show, and this is the new season, and he's recasting the show. this time. so last season was the election. season two is going to be the governing. and -- he is recasting. and not only in people but on issues. >> the problem, people elected him to be president based on positions taken during the campaign. and will his most fervent, core supportering, accept the fact maybe he won't build a wall, maybe not deport all illegal, focus on deportation as president obama did. >> there is an idea we took all of this literally and took it more of shaking things up and he is the ultimate outsider and will be forgiven. i'm not sure. the question you raise, incredibly important. also important for us as journalists as we do soul searching about the campaign, we

still cover what he said and promises he made and will be vigilant about that, whether a couple weeks now later off of it. >> there are promises and there are promises. so immigration, building a wall, big promise. >> yeah. >> key, cornerstone of the campaign. other issues, maybe not so much. where dreamers fits into that, we've already gotten rid of the, you know, the question of deporting people here. largely rounding up 11 million people. dreamer, maybe the second step in that. but i think in, in donald trump's mind's eye, talked to people in the transition about this, there are different categories, i think. >> yeah. >> and he has such confidence in himself as a salesman, that if he continues to go directly to the american public and say, this is why i am doing x, y and z, that maybe -- maybe they'll buy it? >> in the interview on "the today" show today, also susan, he said he's seriously thinking

about mitt romney as his secretary of state. said an announcement next week and still being seriously considered. >> interesting. also named another general, his intention to nominate another general. general kelly, to -- homeland security. >> hasn't formally done that. reports he has. >> yes, reports. >> and reports are out there john kelly. >> and that would be the third -- did that, the third general to head a major agency and might make him less likely to name general petraeus, i think, as secretary of state, head of the state department. maybe helps mitt romney. clearly he's looking around at the state department. brotened sights a bit. rit romney he keeps on thelet not not quite ready to make a call nap will come next week. >> and seriously thinking about the chairman, ceo of exxon mobile coming in. >> clear, he likes alpha males. mostly white men, around him. >> wealthy. >> sorry? wealthy. there's obviously a type here. people who think like he does even though they might execute

differently. mattis, per spect example. incredible erudite well-read warrior creative thinker yet talks and holds himself in a certain way trump likes even though he would execute differently because trump's a different kind of guy. >> i think it's peer to peer. hiring people he feels comfortable with. >> i don't think he's worked out what he wants in secretary of state. a window you'll agree, wolf, we don't see this in transitions or president-elects, working through all this in a way they pretty transparent. >> see them walking into trump tower. waiting to be miked in a meeting. >> different than previous talks. >> all of us, covered a lot of transitions, i don't remember ever, the candidates, being so visible and in a discussion from the journalistic point of view, very happy. >> of course. >> he can decide live who's going to be secretary of state and get them all together and he'll have a live review.

>> he escorts people down to the lobby of trump tower, says, here, immediameet the media. it it is a show. we're in the seconds season. >> and yet hasn't done a news conference since july. >> waiting for one last week. >> and did give an interview to nbc today. gave about an hour to reporters and editors from the "new york times." an interview to the "wall street journal" wmp and an hour on "60 minutes." not a news conference in a long time but he is making himself available. he did a relatively soft interview with sean hannity on fox as well. he is makes himself available to the news media, even if he hasn't sat down for a formal news conference. we'll watch it all together with all of you. don't go far away. coming up, the president-elect promises to crack down on controversial drug price hikes. will he face a backlash from congressional republicans? plus this -- >> december 7, 1941, a date

which will live in infamy. >> today marks the, the nation marks 75 years since japan attacked pearl harbor killing nearly 2,500 and launching the u.s. into world war ii. we'll take you live to remembrance ceremonies around the country. we'll also hear from survivors, just ahead. [ male announcer ] at customink, we make it easy for you to create custom t-shirts and other apparel for all of life's events. get free shipping and

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president-elect donald trump has a new campaign promise to the american people, but the pharmaceutical companies, sounds more like a warning in a "time" magazine interview trump told the magazine he doesn't like what's happening to drug prices and will bring down the price of prescription medications. bring in republican senator john barrasso of wyoming member of the foreign relations committee and thanks for joining us. just back from afghanistan. want to talk about that as well. what's your reaction to bringing down the price of pharmaceuticals? those companies clearly not happy and some republicans not happy he's intervening as well. >> interesting. pharmaceutical companies agreed with obama on passing obama care. we need to make all of health

care more affordable. we're trying to do this immediately with repeal and replacement of the entire obama health care law so people get the care they need from the doctor they choose at lower costs. >> and do you support a two-year replacement policy or three-year? seems to be debate among republicans now. how long it will take to completely change the affordable care act? >> the important thing, people who have had their lives significantl disrupted, a smooth transition to do that. we visited with vice president-elect pence yesterday who came to the senate policy committee luncheon to talk about that. we just want to make sure we don't disrupt the lives of the people. >> what about the millions that have health insurance now, never had it before and now have it thanks to obama care? >> i have a lot of people in wyoming had it before. worked for them and was affordable, but they lost it because of the obama health care law, because the president said,

it wasn't good enough for him. so he counts them now as having "good insurance." in fact, they had something that worked for they werm. gallup pool, repeal and replace or fundamental change the health care law, because it's not working for so many americans. eight out of ten. >> the two or three-year folks for completely replacing it with something new? >> as soon as possible, limiting the damage already done. we need to repair the damage that's taken six years with this health care law to drive the cart into the ditch. it's going to take a while to bring it back out and on to the road to affordable health care. >> on the issue of general mattis becoming defense secretary, i assume you favor congressional legislation giving him a waiver. only out of the military three years. you're supposed to be out for at least seven in order to take over civilian leadership in the department of defense. i want you to listen to what the protected-elect said about this. listen to this. >> he'll get that waiver.

right? he can get that. oh, if he didn't get that waiver, they'll be a lot of angry people. such a popular choice. >> that waiver is included as a temporary funding spending bill, if you will, which is critically important. some are saying, why include the waiver in that essential legislation? they say this is really not fair. >> it's a continuing resolution that funds the government. sets up an expedited procedure to get him through sooner so he can get that vote. i believe he ought to be confirmed after the hearings and proper vetting. you know, when you look at north korea, russia, iran -- and the situation we've had with president obama where he has welcomed sort of the aggression, what i believe show as weakness by the obama administration, you have to deal with somebody whose a nickname is maddog, it will make people think twice before taking aggressive action. >> do you think the president-elect picked him because of of his nickname?

>> i think because of his incredible career in the military, the respect all americans have for him for his service. certainly the men and women in uniform respect him immensely. >> you just came back to washington, spent a few days in afghanistan with u.s. troops on the ground. still, what, about 10,000 u.s. troops in afghanistan. >> yes. >> they're fighting over there. a very, very dangerous operation and didn't just go to kabul? you went outside of kabul? >> we did. the president says he ended two wars. there are still thousands of americans at war in afghanistan and fighting not just the taliban but isis is setting up now -- >> how significant is isis in afghanistan? >> significant in the area nuer the afghan border with pakistan. ober near jalalabad. we went there to a forward operating base. >> are there americans based there? >> there are americans including a guy from wyoming, who was, to spend thanksgiving dinner with a young person moo who is there keeping us safe.

you go to thank troops for doing a job there as well as -- >> you want troops to stay in afghanistan? >> we need the mission completed. >> that mission will go on a long, long time, you know. >> and it's expanding. isis is now moving its operations there. so i have a lot of concerns about the way that the drawdown occurred. that bagram military base, actually a sued bomber who was a local who built a bomb on himself and killed two american soldiers, injured another dozen. this is on the military base and the reason is whs, when i talke troops, local was doing a job that used to be done by a member of the military. you draw down, keep the base there, there is, there are costs to that. >> is it your understanding the president-elect wants to keep those 10,000 american troops in afghanistan? >> i'll lect the president-elect speak for himself. not specifically about that. i go every year at thanksgiving to wherever the wyoming national guard is to thank them on behalf

of the american people and they mostly want to talk about home. he don't want to see it for long, but love to see it and good to be there with them at a holiday. >> about 9,800 troops, down 1,000 or so maybe in january. still a lot of americans there and a very, very dangerous place. >> the pullout from iraq allowed the vacuum for which isis grew up. >> al qaeda in iraq long before the u.s. pulled out. isis emerge frtd om al qaeda. a debate that scholars can discuss down the road. >> and we will. >> glad you're back from afghanistan. thanks for joining us. >> thanks for having me, wolf. >> john bra barrasso of wyoming. live pictures from pearl harbor where an important rep brans ceremony is honoring the yearly 2,500 killed in the attack that took place there 75 years ago together. up next we'll introduce to you a

navy veteran as he embarks on a final military campaign, returning to the site where he lost 400 comrades. >> you hear a tapping on the wall. people in there i guess thinking they're going to get rescued. after about -- two days, maybe, in the third day -- it stopped. >> we'll bring you his remarkable story, but before we go to break, a quick look back to 1991. the 50th anniversary of pearl harbor. i was there, at pearl harbor. spoke to army pilot kenneth taylor as he reflected on the infamous, that infamous morning with one of the japanese pilots shooting at his base. >> i find this a very moving morning, as i think most people who participated in it, similar sort of the day. >> general taylor, thank you very much for joining us on this special 50th anniversary commemoration. lieutenant mighta, thank you very much also for coming to

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mornings are for coffee and contemplation. that was a really profound observation. you got a mean case of the detox blues. don't start a war you know you're going to lose. finally you can now find all of netflix in the same place as all your other entertainment. on xfinity x1. you're looking at like pictures from hickam air force base. 7a years ago japanese planes, attack planes dropped bombs propelling the united states to enter world war ii. the u.s. navy and national park services are hosting a memorial ceremony right now. live pictures coming in. and we're watching two other major events commemorating pearl harbor. vice president-elect mike pence visi visiting the world war ii

memorial here in washington, d.c. and former president george h.w. bush and former senator bob dole, remembered for their service during world war ii as well. while these ceremonies honor the veterans at pearl harbor during that fateful day, one survivor never felt like a hero. he tells us why this year he is going back to pearl harbor for the very first time. >> reporter: ask b.c. wilson the secret to living to age 95 and good health, he'll say love of a vibrant hobby like horse racing and a lot of experience in surviving. do you think, i'm a war hero? >> oh, no, no. gosh. just the opposite. you think what you could have done, and didn't do. >> the japanese attacked pearl harbor. >> reporter: 57 -- 75 years ago

he watched the attack. a world class first petty officer in the navy. >> reporter: what did it feel like to belong in the middle of that? >> i didn't have no fare. i see everything happening, and -- no fear. just seemed like -- unreal. >> reporter: daughter edi and her husband ron. >> they pay a big price for us to be free. >> reporter: how old are you here? >> i was 24. 25. >> reporter: he had pictures and saw their father's purple heart but he never talked about world war ii, until for reasons no one can explain, a few years ago, just started talking. >> just started talking. sad to say i didn't have a tape recorder to get it. >> reporter: and he hasn't stopped talking. sharing horrors, the men he couldn't save aboard the capsized "uss oklahoma." >> you hear the tapping on the wall and wonder, i guess thinking they're going to get rescued. after about two days, maybe, on

the third day, stopped. no more. >> reporter: more than 400 men died on "the oklahoma." >> 75 years later you can still recall that sound? >> oh, gosh, yes. and i thought it was about the sad evidence thing i saw in the navy. i was -- i don't know. seemed so helpless. >> reporter: unlike many survivors he never went back to pearl harbor. it's changing this year. 75 years later he's returning for the first time since that day of infamy. >> what changed? why did you start thinking about it? >> it's a sad day, and i don't know. you try to get it out of your mind and then, it don't go. >> reporter: so the survivor faces one last battle of his own memories. for cnn, collinsville, illinois. defense secretary ash

carter, leez he's in japan pled america's commitment and alines to japan and praising the relationship the two countries share. talk a little more how the defense department and u.s. military evolved since pearl harbor, 75 years ago today. bring in cnn military analyst retired air force colonel sedrick layton. colonel, thanks for joining us. >> my pleasure, wolf. >> your dad served in the u.s. army in world war ii. i was a former pentagon correspondent. is it -- it's not unusual that a lot of those veterans for years and years, they never wanted to talk about what they went through during world war ii. >> absolutely true, and i think it's particularly true with people who actually saw close combat. my dad does not see close combat but served in the intelligence side of the army and he worked a lot of the code-breaking issues that became really famous in later years. first of all, couldn't really talk about that in the close proximity to world war ii because of the classification but then able to talk more about

it and it was very clear that that had a decisive impact on the war. >> only imagine how emotional this trip to pearl harbor for this 95-year-old veteran is going to be. let's talk about the lessons of pearl harbor. lessons that are important today. we often hear military analysts say it's important to prevent another pearl harbor. in today's language, what does that mean? >> pervaded the language quite a bit. you're trying to prevent a surprise attack. you want to be prepared. all an readiness and if something bad happens you want the resilience necessary to overcome that particular surprise attack. so if there is an action like a pearl harbor or a 9/11 attack you want to be able to make sure that you have the resources and the military capability that can actually prevent or actually practice retribution against an attack of that type. >> because pearl harbor was clearly an intelligence faciail?

>> absolutely. the real shame, you had a situation where there was information available, that there was some type of japanese attack being planned, but the precise nature of the attack wasn't known. the precise manner, timing of the attack, that also wasn't known, and that was a significant failure. and also the fact they didn't fuse intelligence with operational information, such as the radar picture, that prevented a great deal of activity as well, and really caused the surprise to be a complete surprise. >> the former defense secretary leon panetta speaks of a cyber pearl harbor threat to the united states right now. and that is enormous, that cyber warfare potential attack. >> absolutely. because unlike a kinetic attack like pearl harbor was, really what 9/11 was, a cyber pearl harbor would be an attack that would be a stealth attack until it's too late, and what they're really worried about, an attack on the infrastructure, the power

grid, hospitals, things that make daily life possible today in our society. if an attack like that were to happen it would have significant social disruption for this country. >> the u.s. military works around the clock to prevent precisely that. that's what keeps them up at night. thanks so much, senator. thanks for joining us. >> you bet, wolf. my pleasure. senator john mccain himself a vietnam war veteran is speaking at the world war ii memorial right now commemorating the 75th anniversary of pearl harbor himself. a very, very emotional day for so many people. coming up, president obama opens up to cnn about a threat to the country that took him by surprise, and why it wasn't on his intelligence radar. his candid interview, that's coming up next. for millions of baby boomers there's a virus out there. a virus that's serious, like hiv, but it hasn't been talked about much. a virus that's been almost forgotten. it's hepatitis c.

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president obama sat down with cnn fareed zakaria reflecting on his eight years as commander in chief. one of the biggest challenges he faced, the rise of isis. >> let me ask you if it's possible in your position to be completely honest and say -- [ laughter ] -- the rise of the islamic state surprised you, took the administration by surprise. >> the ability of isil to initiate major land offenses, that was not on my intelligence radar screen. >> reporter: everyone was stunned. that a few thousand militants swept three iraq and syria, sowing matter to region and the war. >> we will chop out of off the heads of the americans, chop off the heads of the french, chop off of heads of whoever you may

bring. >> reporter: theycreated a caliphate meting out punishments in the most bar bearing ways possible. the host, fareed zakaria, "the legacy of barack obama" airs later tonight. fareed, thank for doing this and joining us. how much does the president think the war or terror will actually wind up playing into his legacy? >> i think he hopes one of the things he's managed to do is to put terrorism in perspective. by which i mean, you know, he said it yesterday in his national security speech. this is not an existential threat to the united states and we shouldn't treat it as such because we elevate this gang of thugs and give them the attention and -- fill them into the kind of fearful monster that they want the world to think of themselves as. i'm sure that one of the things that he grapples with is that he

was determined to draw down in iraq and draw down even in afghanistan, and he did that very skillfully, but it did in some ways produce the vacuum that allowed isis to step in. now, i think he and his administration argue that a lot of that was because of the prime minister of iraq and the policies he pursued, but we, you know, in the documentary, we do try to present both sides, and you see a president who's very effectively drawing down ground troops aggressively using drones, the whole thing seems to be working. osama bin laden is killed, but two years later you get the rise of isis. it's a very -- it's a story of some very big successes, but some failures. >> very powerful moment in the documentary as well. you also have, fareed a very candid conversation with the president about race relations in america. tell our viewers what he told you. >> well, the question i asked

him was -- you know, i said, you are going to go down in history first for not something you did but for who you are. the first african-american president. but actually, you're not really black. you're half white. you were raised by three white people. mother and your two grandparents. and he interjected and don't forget the indonesian stepfather. and we had a very interesting conversation about what it means to be black in america and how important it was for him to be the president who happened to be black and at the same time a symbol for african-americans. you know, it was -- he was always negotiating those two roles. he wanted to be the president, and he also recognized he had a very powerful symbolic value that he provided to african-americans. so he had to be you know, non-racial enough to appeal to the country, and black enough to assure black americans that he hadn't forgotten them. and you see it, we have this wonderful segment on race.

you see him navigating every crisis through those two lenses. >> can't wait to see it, fareed. thanks so much for doing it. for viewers here in the united states and around the world, don't miss fareed's special report "the legacy of barack obama" airing later tonight, 9:00 p.m. eastern and pacific right here on cnn. got live pictures coming in from the world war ii memorial here in washington, d.c. where people are remembering the 75th anniversary of the japanese attack on pearl harbor. we'll take a quick bakreak. we'll be right back.

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western countries are calling for an immediate cease-fire in aleppo, syria. president obama is joining with the leaders of britain, germany, italy, france and canada in demanding syria's government address the crisis by allowing u.n. aid into eastern aleppo. it follows a call from rebels for a five-day humanitarian break from the fighting. fred pleitgen is in aleppo for us right now. fred is joining us live.

fred, how close are regime forces to recapturing that entire city where you are? >> they have an unbelievable amount of momentum, wolf, and what we've seen in the past couple days is they've taken large chunks of the territory the rebels once held away from them. we were able to go into the old town of aleppo and the syrian government has taken most of that back overnight. we saw thousands of civilians fleeing. many of them mall nourish maln tired. it doesn't look as though the syrian government is willing to curb its offensive. here's what we saw. this is aleppo 24/7. shelling and air strikes raining down on rebel held areas. near the front line, it's not just syrian troops, russians and iranians battling on the government side, we meet these syrian palestinian fighters who show us what they claim was a former al nusra field hospital they found when they advanced into this area.

"every injured rebel would be taken here" he says. "you see the medicine and blankets. this is one of their instruments they used." syrian pro-government forces have brought heavy weapons to the front line as they push the opposition back. they showed us these homemade mortars and accused rebels of lacing them with chemicals the army says it discovered in this room close by. this alleged weapons facility is inside what used to be an elementary school in this former rebel-held district. the syrian army says it found this place when it was sweeping the area as rebels were retreating. the battles show no sign of letting up as syrian forces pound rebel-held districts, killing hundreds in the past days and leaving thousands of civilians trapped and at risk. in an interview with cnn, a syrian general says government forces will not stop unless opposition fighters withdraw. >> if he insisted to go on

fighting and bombing our people in aleppo and civilians or the army, we have to continue our mission to get the city back to its people. >> reporter: what that means is plain for everyone in aleppo to see and hear. and, wolf, that's what we're seeing and hearing as the syrian government continues to pound those rebel held areas. the latest information that we're getting is that the syrian government has won additional areas back from the rebels. it seems they only have about four square miles of territory left in eastern aleppo and one of the things we're hearing from people fleeing the area, they say the rib bellebels' morale i wolf. >> fred pleitgen, thank you, doing some amazing reporting. in pakistan, officials say there are no survivors of a plane crash there. the pakistan international airlines flight carrying 48

people including the crew was headed for islamabad. the cause of the crash still under investigation. in media right now, officials say at least 97 people have been killed in a powerful earthquake. the 6.5 magnitude quake hit the aceh province early wednesday morning as residents were preparing for prayers. rescuers are right now combing through rubble for survivors, many homes, many mosques have been destroyed, also a hospital in the area as well. officials say they expect the death toll to rise. let's hope for the best over there. that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. east american the situation room. for our international viewers, amanpour is coming up next. for our viewers here in north america, "newsroom" with ana cabrera starts right after a quick break. ♪

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hello on this wednesday i'm ana cabrera in for brooke baldwin. on the day donald trump is named person of the year on "time," the president-elect is reaching across party lines. he met today with chicago's democratic mayor rahm emanuel who was also president obama's first chief of staff and a major player in crafting obamacare. today emanuel hand-delivered a letter to mr. trump signed by himself and 17 other big city mayors and they urged trump to continue daca, the dreamers program that helps undocumented immigrants brought here to the u.s. as children. >> those are