we're going to build safe zones in syria. ♪ >> all right. saturday morning and we're so grateful to be with you. i'm chris city paul. i'm victor blackwell. donald trump is ends his thank you tour where many saw his first sparks at his power of his political movement. you'll remember this picture in mobile, alabama, 30,000 people there at a stadium last august. >> this morning he continues to build out his cabinet as well. the team naming mulvaney. he co-founded the freedom caucus which clashed with republican party leaders. meantime, president obama and his family will spend their final christmas vacation while

the president is in office in hawaii. the president all but pointing the finger explicitly at russian president vladimir putin as the man behind these alleged hacks. >> not much happens in russia without vladimir putin. this is pretty higher archal operation. last i checked, there's not a lot of debate and democratic deliberation, particularly when it comes to policies directed at the united states. >> still wondering if donald trump will have anything to say about this. ryan nobles is live for us in mobile, alabama, where donald trump will be. what are you hearing is on the itinerary this morning, ryan? >> reporter: well, it's pretty quiet here this morning, christi and victor.

it will be different in a couple hours where crowds are expected to dissend upon this football stadium behind me. he will wrap up this thank you tour here at this football stadium because as you showed about a year and a half ago he brought 30,000 people out for a rally in mobile, alabama, and that was long before any votes had been cast. many people questioned the idea of trump coming here to alabama. it was a long way away from the alabama primary. alabama not expected to be a swing state, but what that rally demonstrated was trump's passionate support among working class voters. and it was those voters that helped him on his methodical march to the white house which turned out, of course, to be successful. now, trump has taken somewhat of a different tone in these thank you rallies that he did in the campaign trail, kind of a gentler donald trump in some respects. last night at his rally in florida, he asked the crowd to follow his lead. take a listen. >> you people were vicious,

violent, screaming, where is the wall? we want the wall. screaming prison, prison, lock her up. i mean, you are going crazy. i mean, you were nasty and mean and vicious and you wanted to win, right? but now you're mellow and you're cool and you're not nearly as vicious or violent, right? because we won. >> and i can tell you i was at that rally about a year and a half ago here in alabama. at the time, we were wondering if these crowds were coming out just because they wanted to see a reality tv star up close and personal, but i remember talking to a lot of people who stood in line for hours to see donald trump, that no, they believed in his message and thought he should become the next president of the united states. obviously that support continued over the next year and a half as trump made his way to victory. this will be the last stop on that thank you tour, as we

mentioned. trump and his family now preparing for the christmas holiday. he dropped his wife and young son off at the mar-a-lago resort in florida last night and trump will return there tomorrow and is expected to be there throughout the christmas holiday. christi and victor. >> all righty. yeah, ryan, it will be interesting to see what you hear from those people that are there today if any of them are returning from the last time purpose there. thank you so much, ryan nobles, we appreciate it. let's continue the conversation now with cnn senior politics reporter steven colinson and errol lewis. steven, i want to start with you on what we are now hearing from the president-elect about the hacks here. we did not hear him talk about it last night in orlando. we will -- it's yet to see if we will see if he talks about it today in mobile, but the last time he mentioned it was this tweet that he sent out that was going to the dnc and hillary clinton, not the hack itself. there seems to be a specific strategy there going after by

not talking about russia. >> yeah, i think so, victor. what the trump transition has tried to do is portray this as part of political tu multi. the idea that in their opinion democrats and critics of donald trump and the intelligence community are trying to invalidate his election victory. but if we look at it, this is an extraordinary situation where the president-elect of the united states is going into office in 30 odd days completely at odds with the combined assessments of the u.s. intelligence agencies who will advise him on some of the most grave questions of national security when he becomes president. so i think it's going to be interesting over the next month or so to see whether donald trump in any way steps back from these accusations or rejection, in fact, that russia had any role in intervening in the election, a position in which obviously puts him at odds with the white house as well and the white house has vowed to take action. so i think we'll see an

interesting political dimension to this issue unfold before donald trump officially becomes president. >> errol, it puts him at odds with members of his own party. let's look at a tweet from senator lind si graham out this week where he says if you don't go after russia for hacking during 2016 election, you're inviting other bad actors, china, north korea, iran et cetera to do the same. this could be his first big intraparty fight as he begins the trump administration. >> well, that's right. there's a lot of members of the senate leadership, of the congressional leadership in the republican party who are veterans of the cold war who remember what the kgb meant, who remember that it was sort of job one on foreign policy of the national leadership of the united states to confront this kind of tampering and meddling and espionage. it's also worth pointing out, victor that the cyberattacks, the meddling in american elections was not confined to the presidential contest.

there are nearly a dozen house seats where we now know the russians were involved in releasing damaging information and attempting to sway different races. that really sort of hits home for members of the congress. they're not likely to look the other way, even for a member of their own party. >> this is part of the conversation about sanctions, if there will be further sanctions on russia that many -- several of the top names in the republican party in the senate we know from senate mccain, senate graham as well, stephen, this comes a at time when their discussions of possibly lifting sanctions against russia related to their an exasian of crimea. >> that's right. we know the nominee for secretary of state rex tillerson is head of exxon mobil criticized sanctions of russia saying they weren't proven to work and the tillerson confirmation is now being caught up in this whole aftermath of the russian alleged hacking of the election. there are a number of senior republican senators, john

mccain, for example, lindsey graham, marco rubio expressed concerns about tillerson's close relationship that he forged with vladimir putin as the head of exxon mobil. it's actually quite ironic. what we're seeing is donald trump was the ultimate anti-establishment figure. he picked tillerson for as his nominee of secretary of state. we're seeing establishment trying to keep tillerson on the track. former vice president dick cheney is sort of lobbying senators to let this nomination of rex tillerson go ahead. but what's so interesting is russia is at the center of this -- was at the center of this election, now at the center of the transition. if this was a russian attack to sew discord and distrust in american politics in washington,

it's worked. >> we'll have congress nan jack kingston on later. he says he was not in moscow on behalf of the campaign but he was a trump campaign adviser talking in part with businessmen about the sanctions. how high now have the issues sanctions moved in the hierarchy of this trump administration considering the call of new sanctions from congress and when you have tillerson in the position of secretary of state, someone who is no fan of these sanctions? >> it's very interesting. they're playing a game of chess there, victor. i think you're right to point that out. imagine this scenario, the departing president of the united states based on the things that he said yesterday, saying that, we're going to respond to all of these cyberattacks, russian meddling, we're not going to necessarily tell you what it is. imagine if he ratcheted up sanctions before leaving the white house, leaving to donald trump and his future secretary of state the very difficult

question of whether or not to lift sanctions, even as we've now proved that in addition to whatever went on in crimea, we've got this huge problem of them meddling in american elections. what president is going to want to in his first few months lift sanctions on a nation that interfered in such an unprecedented way. >> again, could be the first big foreign policy fight there. errol lewis, stephen colinson, thank you so much. still to come, the moral and ethical issues of president-elect's millions that he hid during the presidential campaign. hope for people trying to get out of the aleppo. a new report says it could soon resume. toms kept coming back on my long-term control medicine. i talked to my doctor and found a missing piece in my asthma treatment with breo. once-daily breo prevents asthma symptoms. breo is for adults with asthma not well controlled on a long-term asthma control medicine,

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because you put this, in here. hum by verizon. the technology designed to make your car smarter, safer and more connected. put some smarts in your car. 13 minutes past the hour right now. a cnn review of federal reports show that donald trump paid nearly $12.5 million to his own businesses and family members during his 18-month long campaign for president. the president-elect has also been including his children in official meetings with heads of state and leaders of major u.s. companies, so a lot of people are saying does this pose an

ethical problem? and if so, how serious a problem is it? christina alesch shi is live from new york with us trying to answer that question. what have you found in your research, christina, and good morning to you? >> good morning. a number of ethics experts said, yeah, it's a serious problem. a number of outspoken experts are comparing the trump's family behavior to corrupt regimes around the world. we have to see what trump takes office in january, but the involvement of the president-elect's kids are raising red flags right now. experts say when trump's children are sitting beside him at the table or on a phone call with world leader, that relays a certain signal, intention or not, that they are as important as he is. one of trump's biggest critics on this normanizen who worked on government ethics for president obama is warning that this kind of behavior really undermines democracy.

>> the problem with it is it sends a message that if you want to have influence in the administration, do it through the kids. and there's a tradition. this is not the first time this has happened. i'm just shocked it's happened in the united states. >> so eisen went on to compare trump's children to those of the ruling communist party officials in china, they're called princings. corporations here in the u.s. and abroad have hired princelings in order to curry favor with the chinese government. jp morgan chase, for example, a major u.s. bank with extensive major business in china recently agreed to pay $264 million fine for hiring these princelings in what regulators called a systemic bribery scheme, christi. >> is it a fair comparison to take trump's family in official government and business? is it fair to compare that to the regimes of china? and is it that serious an issue? >> well, it could be.

and of course, you know, trump has yet to take office, but lawyers and ethics experts are becoming alarmed now because of the pattern they're seeing. not only is trump including his children in these official transition meetings, but he's also telling the public that two of them will run his company. that clearly mixes the office of the president with family business. now, this is the salient point, why should americans care? primarily because corruption thrives in countries where the lines between family and government are blurred or indistinct all together. this often results in wasteful overpriced government projects being awarded to friends and cronies of the ruling family elsewhere and if that happens here in the u.s., christi, it could end up costing u.s. taxpayers billions. >> quite certain that people will be watching it very closely. christina ale shi, always good to see you. thank you. >> thank you. >> sure. we've all watched these heart breaking scenes out of

aleppo, people suffering from this on going war, but now there is a bit of renewed hope, according to a military news outlet led by the syrian government may allow evacuations to continue in aleppo. this is the goal post. the end zone. the goal of every team. we know you have goals. like getting exposure for your idea or business. with godaddy website builder, you can easily create an awesome mobile-friendly, get you more exposure website. we call that...a website builder touchdown. get your free trial of website builder now.

well, donald trump while on his thank you tour in orlando yesterday, he talked about radical islamic terror imand how

he plans to address the situation, particularly the humanitarian disaster in syria. >> we're going to build safe zones. we're not having them come over. we're going to build safe zones in syria. we're going to build safe zones. and we're going to get the states to pay for the safe zones and we're going to try to help people. >> well, this is coming as there is new hope for the people who are trying to get out of aleppo. this is according now to a military news outlet run by hezbollah. the syrian government and the rebel group in eastern aleppo reached a new agreement that will allow evacuations in that city to continue. >> the announcement, though, comes after the evacuation of thousands of refugees from that city had been halted. cnn senior international correspondent fred pleitgen is following the story for us from beirut. im to forewarn you the imagines of these families, of the children, of the things people

are going through are just gut wrenching. so, what are you learning there about how expansive or how plausible, even, the evacuations starting up again could be? is it really going to happen for them? >> reporter: you know, that's a really good question, christi. one of the things we always have to keep in mind when we hear that some new agreement has been reached that so far two of these agreements have been reach and fallen apart. thousands of people have already been evacuated, but yesterday at some point everything went bad when one of the convoys was stopped and even shot at. let's have a look. >> they were supposed to be brought to safety, instead they're running for their lives once again. a convoy meant to take these east aleppo residents out of the besieged areas under fire. this eyewitness says he was part of the convoy stopped he claims

by an iranian militia fighting on the side of the syrian president bashar al assad. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> reporter: the syrian government has a very different account, it says rebel fighters in the convoy were carrying concealed weapons and that they are to blame for the violence that reportedly left a number of people dead. evacuations that had already succeeded in getting thousands out of eastern aleppo ground to an immediate halt as the blame game began. russian making a puzzling announcement saying it believed the evacuation of east aleppo was complete and that only hard lined rebel fighters remained in the enclave. turkey, which helped negotiate the agreement, shooting down those claims. the red cross and unicef for their part say tens of thousands of people, including more than 1,000 children are still trapped inside the war-torn city. for those that made it out, the

anguish was almost too much to bare. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> reporter: but for those still trapped inside the tiny rebel enclave in eastern aleppo, the situation is even worse. stuck in the bitter cold with no food and no medical supplies, left to pray that the violence won't begin again. >> and just want to update you on the latest that we literally got a couple minutes ago. you saw in our report there those green buss that are supposed to take people from eastern aleppo from the rebel-held areas through government territory and then to other opposition-controlled areas in syria, those are apparently as we speak lining up once again, getting ready to resume those operations that are supposed to resume in the next couple of hours. you know, the red cross has come out and said it's absolutely

important that this does happen because there are a lot of people who are at risk, who haven't eaten anything real in weeks, who haven't slept very much and of course we're deeply traumatized as well and they say that it is especially the children who need to be evacuated otherwise they may not survive much longer. >> as we saw in your piece. i want to bring out the point that donald trump was talking about earlier. he said in this rally that he was attending, that he wants to build safe zones and that's where he wants these people to go. how plausible is that to do in syria, fred? >> reporter: it's a very good question. you know, if you look towards the north of syria, there's some areas that the turks have taken control of essentially. they have some syrian rebel groups that are fighting on their side. they've taken some territory away from isis and those are essentially administered and sought after by the turks. so if you want, that would already be somewhat of a safe zone.

anything above that, there's no way that you're going to put in a safe zone without the consent of the syrian government and of course of russia as well because they pretty much control a lot of those areas, at least in the skies, also the ones that the rebels are holding as well. it would be very difficult to do. there are some areas that are fairly safe in the north controlled by the turks. >> hopefully they can get there. fred pleitgen, we appreciate it so much. thank you. let's go next door to turkey where 13 soldiers are dead and 55 people are wounded, this after a deadly explosion there. a car rigged with a bomb exploded next to a bus trance portding off-duty soldiers. this is the late nest a wave of deadly bombings that have struck turkey this year. turkey's president released this statement -- we know that those attacks that were facing -- we are facing rather are not independent from the developments in iraq and syria. he added that, quote, we will fight against terrorist organizations. pardon me. excuse me. $25 million, that's how much the

u.s. state department says it will now reward anyone with information leading to the location, the arrest or conviction of isis leader abu backer al-baghdadi. it's a steep price. in 2011, the award was $10 million. lazing the award sa proactive incentive siting that taking out al-baghdadi would better protec our homeland. lay the blame on vladimir putin, president barack obama pointing the finger at the highest levels of the russian government for interfering with the u.s. election campaign.

russia's hacking and interference in the elections. >> in early september when i saw president putin in china, i felt that the most effective way to ensure that that didn't happen was to talk to him directly and tell him to cut it out and there were going to be serious consequences if he didn't.

and, in fact, we did not see further tampering of the election process. >> but russia has a message back for the u.s. -- it says prove it or shut up. want to talk with this with clarissa ward who is live in moscow. clarissa, are you hearing anything about whether russia may retaliate when it comes to these and what they will do and how far they will go? >> at this stage, we haven't heard much of a reaction to president obama's press conference yesterday in which he all but specifically named president vladimir putin as the perpetrator behind the hacking of the u.s. elections. up to point, the russians have been pretty consistent in their denials of having any involvement. they have dismissed these accusations as ludacris nonsense.

just yesterday the kremlin spokesperson said as you paraphrased before, the u.s. either had to prove these allegations or it should stop making them all together, calling them, quote, indecent. so, there's a sense here all along that the kremlin party line has been to deny these allegations and to dismiss them as being an attempt really to poison the well, to try to poison the relationship that appears to be warming up between president putin and between president-elect trump. a lot of state media also casting this as a kind of pathetic attempt of the u.s. government to hide or to conceal the deep seeded problems that america has domestically from the american people. but funny enough there's also a strange sense as well that russian people are kind of enjoying this. they're kind of enjoying all the attention they're getting and they're kind of enjoying the even suggestion that they could pull off such an audacious move as swinging the u.s. election. so i wouldn't expect to see much

in terms of a specific reaction from the russians. i think for president vladimir putin 2016 has been a very good year. and frankly, i think they're almost enjoying watching this play out, christi. >> that's interesting. i'm wondering -- i talked with former director tom fuentes last hour and he said he believes the motivation for putin when it comes to these hacks is basically to show the u.s. he can do it. to show that the u.s. is not strong enough to stop it. do you see a power struggle coming between president putin and president-elect trump because you can't imagine that donald trump would appreciate that view of being seen as weaker? >> i think it's really difficult, christi to speculate as to what the motivations were for these hacks. i think quite possibly the primary objective may just have been to disrupt the u.s. election, to try to disrupt the democratic process, to cast the

election in a kind of negative light, to bring out this divisiveness and create a little bit of chaos surrounding the whole event. i do think, though, tapping into your second point that it is way too early to talk about a serious warming of relations between the u.s. and russia because ultimately while president-elect trump and president putin have been saying nice things about each other, they also have certain things in common that may make it difficult for them to have a real relationship because they are both strong men with strong opinions and it remains to be seen what compromises either side would be willing to make in the interest of improving a future relationship, christi. >> and how that would work together. clarissa ward, we appreciate it so much. thank you. let's bring in jack kingston, josh rogen. gentlemen, good morning to both of you. >> good morning. >> good morning, victor. >> congressman, i want to start

with you. you traveled to moscow shortly after the election, just there a couple of days ago actually, and we understand you told our jake tapper you were there not as a representative of the transition but as a private citizen, and you did speak with some business members there who were concerned about the future of sanctions against russia. what did you tell them? >> well, first of all, victor, i was there as a private citizen. i work with a large international law firm and we had post election evaluations and wrapups in london, australia, washington, d.c. and one in brussels before the election and we meet typically with businesses that our clients that are in our network and so forth. one of the concerns they had was lifting the sanctions. what i had discussed with them is that the sanctions have been in place to the degree that we can see if they've been effective or not.

and at that point seeing if we got the results that we needed then a new incoming president can decide if that's something to expand, something to contract, something to continue as is. >> congressman, let me ask you, at a time when the heads of the fbi and the director of national intelligence agreeing with the cia assessment that russia interfered in the u.s. election in part to help donald trump, why would this be a time to consider lifting sanctions? >> well, victor, as i said, i was meeting with a lot of businesses and they tend to look at things from a profit standpoint. one of the things that we also discuss is, look, the big issues still are going to be crimea, syria and ukraine and the president has to deal with that. where businesses can play a role with or without sanctions is just being a good conduit for relationships and communications. many of these business have been there for 20, 30, 40 years. caterpillar tractor has been in

russia since 1930. for an opportunity for communications i think it's important. >> i hate to jump in here, but we're running low in time and i want to bring josh into the conversation. one of the businesses that's been there for some time is exxon mobil. we know that president of exxon mobil rex tillerson is now donald trump's pick to lead the department of state. immaterial you to listen to what he said about sanctions and russia just a couple months ago. >> we've got the sanctions in place right now. and he he understands that's -- i'm going to comply with the sanctions. there's not any conversation otherwise about that. and they recognize that. the first time i went over to see them after the sanctions were in place i was a little nervous. wasn't sure. and it was interesting because the first question they asked me was how are you doing? are you okay? and i said, well, yeah, i'm fine. why do you ask? well, we just wondered whether your government was coming after you because you were doing business with us. so they were more worried about

me. so they understood. we understand you can't do certain things now. what i tell them s you know, we aren't going anywhere. we've been around for 130 years. when the sanctions are over, we'll sit down and get back to work. until then, we have to comply with the law. >> he was talking about the sanctions as temporary and context of a personal relationship with vladimir putin. josh, to you, how high does the issue of sanctions move on this list of priorities now that you've got a tillerson in at state? >> yeah. i would just say we should look at those three issues that congre congressman kingston talked about. russian behavior is still bad. you have to think about the implication of what lifting the sanctions would do. you know, i'm sure when the trump administration comes in they'll take a look at this, okay? but rex tillerson is no longer going to be representing exxon mobil. he'll be representing the united states, if he gets confirmed,

he'll be representing the need for the government to defend our national security. if you just take away sanctions and the bad behavior continues, all you've done is re-enforce that bad behavior, okay? you've probably lessened of sanctions for any use going forward. these are things that were done very deliberately. if we're going to remove them, that has to be done very deliberately. all administrations come in thinking they'll have a good relationship with russia. the last few administrations have done that, george w. bush, obama, it doesn't work out. they have interest that's are not aligned with our interests. we'll go through a process where the trump administration trying to make deals with russia and whether or not the russians cooperate is really up to them. >> josh, looking forward at potentially the next five weeks in the response from the u.s. government to russia as a result of the hacks, what goes into the decision making process here of the proportional response or a

big bold exclamation point to deter a china, a north korea, an iran as lindsey graham pointed out earlier this week? >> yeah, i know. i think you'll see demands in congress for both parties for that big, bold response that you were talking about and see an obama administration that's looking for a more proportional quiet measured response. you have two tensions here. on the one hand, you don't want to escalate. there's no reason to make this into an all-out, full-fledged conflict with russia. that's an overreaction. on the other hand, you don't want to underact. this is a breech of our national security. threading that needle is tough, all right? the first step would be if everyone could get on the same page. by everyone i mean the president-elect, he should immediately come out and take the intelligence briefings and give them the benefit of the doubt rather than the russian government and once we can all agree that this has happened, that there's a lot of evidence that the russians are involved, then we can proceed with the investigation to get the rest of the evidence. then we can talk about what we need to do about it.

but first things first, we have to stop this sort of discussion of, oh, did this happen or did this not happen? it happened and it was real and it was serious. >> thank you both. >> thank you. meanwhile, china steals development from the u.s. navy, the u.s. demands it back. what china's officials just told cnn. that's me. then out of nowhere...crying. third time that day. i wasn't even sad. first the stroke, now this. so we asked my doctor. he told us about pseudobulbar affect, or pba. it's frequent, uncontrollable crying or laughing that doesn't match how you feel. it can happen with certain neurologic conditions like stroke, dementia, or ms. he prescribed nuedexta, the only fda-approved treatment for pba. tell your doctor about medicines you take. some can't be taken with nuedexta. nuedexta is not for people with certain heart conditions. serious side effects may occur. life-threatening allergic reactions to quinidine can happen. tell your doctor right away if you have bleeding or bruising. stop nuedexta if muscle twitching, confusion, fever,

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the pentagon is demanding china return their u.s. navy droens, this of course after it was stolen. >> china stealing the drone near the philippines in international waters, so that's illegal. the move comes amid high tensions in the south china sea with new reports that china has now weaponized these disputed man made islands. >> as for the stolen drone itself, u.s. officials say it was, quote, simply measuring ocean conditions. cnn's mat rivers is live in beijing this morning with more. matt, what are you hearing this hour from china and their response? >> reporter: well, what we're hearing from china is a very, very measured response from beijing, which is something that we're very used to. we got one line from the ministry of foreign affairs basically saying they're working with their u.s. colleagues to

come to a smooth resolution to this incident. but even though it was a measured response, this is an incident that is quite serious and it's something that will absolutely alter what has been a rocky u.s./china relationship over the past weeks and years. the ussn research ship was 50 miles off the filipino coast yesterday where it was conducting research using two underwater drones called ocean gliders. the research was legal under international law. a chinese naval ship launched a small boat which swooped in and stole one of the ocean gliders. the defense department says they immediately made contact to ask for it back but the chinese ship simply sailed away. friday, pentagon officials asked again. spokesman captain jeff davis said it is ours and we would like it back and we would like this not to happen again.

chi china's ministry of foreign affairs said in a statement saturday, quote, china and the united states are using military channels to appropriately handle this issue. a chinese state run newspaper the global times siting a chinese military source says the naval ship took it to prevent any navigational safety issues. the paper went on to say the source told them, quote this issue will be smoothly resolved. this comes at a tight of heightened u.s. military in the chinese sea. action the u.s. calls illegal. and president-elect trump has made beijing angry twice in the last two weeks, first taking a call from taiwan's president and then questioning the legitimacy of the one china policy, a decades old diplomatic staple of u.s. china relations. and as for the motivation behind the chinese seizure of this underwater drone, no one can say for sure, there are a couple theories floating around, one, it can be in retaliation to the

incoming administrations reaction and relationship to taiwan so far. you could also look at maybe part of a broader change in strategy for the chinese perhaps testing the waters a bit ahead of the administration changeover set to happen in january, but the fact remains what you can talk with all experts in terms of an opinion that they all share is that this is relatively unprecedented in recent times and that it very well could alter the u.s./china relationship moving forward. >> matt rivers for us in beijing. matt, thanks so much. >> all righty. severe weather across parts of the northeast right now we're getting word, one major airport has shut down due to ice. there's live pictures of new york for you. we'll get your update on the other side of the break here. do stay close. but first -- a london born actor takes us on a tour of his favorite local spots in this week's edition of "around the

world." ♪ welcome. we're outside the stables market which is really the heart of the cultural london scene. very much the place of a lot of british guitar music. right behind us you can see a place which is in the heart of the market there. it was really the focal point for a lot of british punk music. bands like the sex crystals played there, the clash. it's embedded in a lot of musical history. ♪ ♪ i'm fortunate enough i get to travel around the world a lot with the work that i do, but the one thing that i always look forward to coming back to is having a pint in a north london pub and enjoying one of these amazing london scotch eggs. cheers.

♪ yeah, there really is no better place to finish my tour of london than at the top of prim rose hill. you can see the whole skyline of london and just to have a moment and just take in this beautiful scene. ♪ >> announcer: "around the world" is brought to you by -- the mariotte portfolio of hotels. now with 30 brands in over 110 countries. they're everywhere. and as a marriot rewards member, i can embrace them all. the new marriott portfolio of hotels now has 30 brands in over 110 countries. so no matter where you go, you are here. join or link accounts at members.marriott.com. especially around the holidays.e. i was pinchin' more than pennies!

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well, first it's the roads, then it's the airports and the weather really doing a number up in the washington, d.c. area. dulles airport is closed right now because of icy conditions, all the runways at the airport shut down because of freezing rain in the area. the airport says it's made surrounding roads just impassable there. crews are treating the runways with ice melt and we know the airport says to check with your airline to confirm the flight status. >> yeah. they said the local roads are treacherous as well, that was their description. cnn meteorologist allison chin car looking at this. it's not just how bad it is right now, it's how long will it

last, allison. >> and that's going to be a big case for some of these airports and also as you mentioned the surrounding roadways. now in and around the washington, d.c. and baltimore area, they've had reports of anywhere from a tenth of an inch up to two tenths of an inch of ice and that's a concern. again, notice, we still have some more bands of this that are going to be making its way through, again adding to some of the freezing rain and the ice that has already started to accumulate. it's not just in d.c. we take a look at philadelphia dealing with many of the similar situations. new york right now is getting snow, but that's going to transition into that freezing rain and eventually rain as we go through the day. so they're also going to likely have some slick spots and dealing with some pretty heavy snow coming down into boston. so as we mentioned, it's also going to be other cities, yes, dulles airport in d.c. closed. all the runways are not operating at this hour, but it's not that much better in some of the other locations, including philadelphia, you could have delays and cancellations up to two hours. new york, laguardia, jfk up to

90 minutes, boston very similar and even denver as well. even if you're connecting in and out of some of those airports, check with your carrier. they are dealing with substantial delays if not cancellations. the additional ice that we are expecting on top of what we've already had still looks all of the pink shaded area to be about a quarter of an inch. you can see some pockets of purple in pennsylvania, maryland also down into tennessee where we could be looking at half of an inch of ice atop of what we've already had. we know of at least a quarter of an inch that's fallen in ohio west virginia and pennsylvania and adding more on top of that. snowfall will be mainly limited to new england and some areas could be looking at six inches of snow. now the radar right now, again we're showing more of that freezing rain expected to move into washington, d.c. and philadelphia and the changeover taking place in new york with in the coming hours. unfortunately the problems are going to be there for at least

the rest of the day. it will just be changing from one airport to the next. >> oh my goodness. what a mess. allison, thanks for the heads up. so the university of minnesota's football team might be staying home for the holidays. andy scholes is work on details of this one. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, victor. minnesota players are boycotting football activities right now until their teammates are reinstated. i'll have the details up next. ♪ (woman) one year ago today mom started searching for her words. and my brother ray and i started searching for answers.

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i won this 55 inch tv for less than $30 on dealdash.com. visit dealdash.com for great deals. and start bidding today! this is the top story on cnn.com right now. >> andy scholes is looking into it. now, this is because ten of their teammates were suspended earlier this week and they're saying, am i right, if they

don't play, we don't play. >> that's right. university of minnesota so they indefinitely suspended ten players yerl this week without giving a reason. the attorney for the players say they're being suspended for they alleged role on a sexual assault on a female student that happened in september. the other players on the team, we're going to boycott all football activities until their teammates have their suspensions lifted. now, players from the team have met with officials from the university to try to resolve this boycott, but asofright now there is no resolution and the university of minnesota's president said in a statement, we support gopher athletic's decision because this is much bigger than football. it's about the values every university of minnesota student is called on to uphold. we make these expectations clear. when they are not met, there are consequences. the gophers are scheduled to play washington state in the holiday bowl on december 27th. the star tribune is reporting that minnesota officials have

until 12:00 p.m. today to make this decision whether or not they are going to go play this bowl game. it's really unfortunate situation for everyone involved and you have to feel for just the seniors in the band, this was their last hoorah, the last bowl game and this could all be for not. >> let me ask you something, are there indications that there are charges forthcoming for any of these? >> no. police say there was not enough physical evidence to bring charges. case in that essence is closed. >> so the case is closed. i wonder if there's a civil case? >> and that may be coming down the pike. let me ask you about what's happening as it relates to the holiday bowl. you've got cities that rely on these games. >> absolutely. >> you have the other team that wants to play. is the bowl over? >> no, the bowl is happening no matter what and espn is reporting that northern illinois right now has been contacted and they are standing by as the backup team to come in at the last second scenario. but again, what about all the parents for minnesota, all the students who bought tickets to go to the holiday bowl?

they will all be left out in the cold. >> can you imagine the scrambling going on? >> scrambling for them. also this is a very serious subject, but if the case has been closed a lot of questions if this is moving forward. >> andy, thank you. >> you're welcome. >> appreciate it. that's it for us. we'll see you back here at 10:00 a.m. >> yeah, don't go anywhere. smerconish is with you next. ♪ i'm michael smerconish in philadelphia. we welcome your viewers in the united states and around the world. the fbi and cia now in agreement that russia was trying to help donald trump win the presidency. and president obama confirmed the hack, saying he told putin to knock it off. will the latest news cause the president-elect to change his view? i'll ask sean spicer. and you remember our conv