♪ honestly i don't care ♪ find the perfect vacation rental for you booking.com, booking. yeah. after nearly a 60 year, wait white house announced paris davis will finally be awarded the medal of honor, the most prestigious decoration in the u.s. military. according to the new york times, davis, one of the first black officers and a green berets, was nominated in 1965 for his heroism during the vietnam war, but the army allegedly lost his nomination paperwork. four years later, the nomination was re-submitted and again, the paperwork was apparently lost. davies tells cbs news that it was a fact in the delay. president biden, personally called monday to inform him that he would receive the matter of honor and said he looked for to hosting him at the white house. davis said the call from the president prompted a wave of

memories of the men and women he served. with the news continues with erin burnett, out front starts right now. out front next, new reporting from the white house this hour. ready to go. those of the words of a biden adviser tonight about a 2024 run and we will tell you what else is going on behind the scenes tonight. all new reporting from our phil mattingly here at the top of the hour and ron desantis's new target is a small liberal arts college. his goal is to turn it into a conservative school, and the man desantis is putting in charge, reportedly making more than double than his predecessor. and the space race is up for an investigation inside of china spy balloon making operation. named after physicists neil de grasse tyson is out front. let's hear what he has to say about the extraterrestrial life. let's go up front. and good evening, welcome to the special edition of out front, i'm erin burnett, tonight, ready to go. that is an exact quote, those are the words of a biden adviser, tonight telling our phil mattingly about the presidents plans to announce he is running for reelection.

up until last week, president biden has publicly said he's not ready to make a decision on 2024, he's kept using that word intend, but he is not made a decision, but privately, phil can report all the pieces are in place for a robust national campaign. so why is biden waiting to announce? i will speak to fill in just a moment about his new reporting. it comes the context of former president trump finally having his first major challenger for the republican presidential nomination. today, former u.s. ambassador and you win advisor nikki haley announcing her campaign for president. >> it's time for a new generation of leadership, to rediscover for a school responsibility, secure our border and strengthen our country, our pride, and our purpose. >> phil mattingly is live out front the white house, so, ready to go, that's the tip of the iceberg from your sources, telling us about biden's plans to run. >> it underscores that inside

the white house, when you talk to advisers on the team, even when advisers leave the white house, they are fully planning for the campaign, not just fully planning, there have been plans and an infrastructure bill over the course of the last several months in the lead up to an announcement that at this point seems inevitable. not just expected. that being said, president biden especially has not made the decision yet. he said so publicly. that's also been the case privately. everything that the presidents political team, his senior team, have been pushing towards, is that 2024 reelection campaign. you have seen it in the public messaging, the offense that he is attended in critical swing states to talk about his key agenda winds in the first two years, in places like arizona, georgia, pennsylvania. those are all not subtle. they're all very intentional and that is what we have seen publicly. you also saw the state of the union address, which really kind of brought together many of those critical scenes, but it's behind the scenes, what they've been building privately over the course of not just

months, but two years, that is really set the table for what lies ahead. infrastructure, to the democratic national committee -- millions of dollars rates. tens of millions of dollars to build out a state based organizations and all of those critical battleground states. all driving towards the moment the president announces his reelection. again, it's important caveat, the president has not said that. but they do not believe there is an urgency at this moment, despite the fact that they had been planning for potentially making an announcement this month. what they have seen over the course of these last couple of months, on the republican side, the slow build out of the republican field, the former president lackadaisical effort in the first few months of his own campaign. but also on the democrat side, the larger democratic national -- has coalesced behind the president. they're not trying to run against him. there's no urgency.

what they want to do right now is continue the path that they have been on and that path is what the president laid out -- very driven by these first two years, agenda item winds. and also by the idea of what comes next as the president said, more than a dozen times in the state of the union address, three words, finish the job. >> right. i guess that's at all when you say inevitable, those semantics matter. they show diesel in some ways. all right, phil, thank you very much. john avlon -- all with me here tonight. okay, so, inevitable. use that word. it has not been announced. but he's got the money, the operation, kate bedingfield is gone. not, gone but consulting with -- the i mean, it's all there, right? does he benefit by doing it this way? >> i think there's no urgency for biden to announce, the momentum is behind him. polls show democrats are actually coalescing against this presidency after a long time saying they approved of the job use doing, but didn't particularly want him to run again. polls show that he stacks up best against all the republican competitors. and look, giving up the advantage of his incumbency is something that democrats don't want to do. they learned their lesson with

kennedy and jimmy carter. look, i continue to think that in the fullness of time, this is not a decision that biden's team should be taking lightly just because they're up in the polls. but he's done a strong job, objectively, it's been a great midterm and he can run a rose strategy and he should. >> he has the pulpit. he has the state of the union. but he does not need to announce to start holding rallies, he does that every day. >> that's right. there is something to the inertia of the incumbency. there is no urgency to announce. but you know, he -- look, he will announce. i just think -- >> that never happens. >> he stacked up against all the republicans best. that simply, if it is not donald trump, look at nikki haley, look at some of these other candidates, i mean, i don't think that larry hogan would get the nomination, but there are many other candidates that won't stack up well against joe biden not in his

favor. >> i agree with you. i'm talking about current polling. he stacks up best against donald trump. if it's a much younger candidate, that contrast will not look good. but as far as hogan goes -- they've, keep hope alive. >> so, congressman jones, let's talk about the polling, here because john mentioned something. there had been approval of democrats, by the book, about the job that biden is doing. and now he is making a very energetic case about. it finished the job. give me another chance. very clear. and now you have 50% of democrats and democratic leading independent saying that they prefer a candidate other than biden. these are democrats. this is an abc poll. what does that say to you? should he take that too hard or just ignore? it >> he should consider it, because it does go to what most democrats are thinking about when they do feel concerned about him, and that is his age. put him up against donald trump, i feel really good about the

odds, once again, at a head to head for this president, going up against this guy. i think that he has a tremendous record of accomplishment to run on. i'm a bit biased. as somebody who was just in congress to pass this. but objectively, to john's point, just large-scale transformational legislation, much of which still is not taken effect, but americans will continue to feel it, especially when drug costs stopped going down -- beginning in january of this year -- you can run on a lot. >> that's tough, when it happened, i had not -- it's a fair point to say that people did not feel it, but they will buy the presidential election. harry, when you look at the numbers, how do you see a president who is waiting to formally announce? >> i think he has got all the time in the world, to be perfectly honest with you. if you look at essentially the median president going back 40 plus years, when did they announce? they did not announce until late april. april 30th of the year before the general election, and we are still two and a half months until that point. ronald reagan, who cruised to reelection in 1984, did not in fact announced or foul with the ftc until october of 1983. joe biden -- >> that is incredible. in many ways, he is sort of the model. not as oldest biden, but -- >> exactly right. somebody whose approval rating was kind of middling at this point, but still have the approval of his party behind him and had no real challengers really on the horizon. that is basically joe biden at this point. in my mind, he is a long ways to go until he has to really announce. >> obviously, there is no challenge.

>> he is already running. it was reporting a few months ago that the white house was miffed that gavin -- gavin apologized. clearly, they're signaling that they are doing this, but they have not announced. >> part of the reason that he has the wind in his sails and time is that i don't know what's going, on not a whole lot, remember the big escalator ride. wasn't that in june? yeah. that's right.

june. he was the first to announce at the end of october or whatever it was and now here we are, nikki haley gets in today. things have gotten earlier and earlier. >> it depends on the presidential cycle, but this is an open appeal to republicans. donald trump of course has this feeling of maybe 30, 35, maybe 40% of the republican party. the real question is, if you get an early as a candidate, are you going to be able to generate the fundraising to take it through for two more years? there are some candidates who will be able to do that a lot easier than others. nikki haley is one and this is

why i think you are seeing her get in. she has a lot of fundraising prowess and a lot of promise within the republican donor class. ron desantis does to. that's a real question. why is he waiting? >> i don't like to stir the pot over here, but i feel like -- i feel like john does not fully agree. >> if you get an early, you have the confidence to fund your race. >> ron desantis cannot rate because he has already been seen as -- i think nikki haley is smart to get it now. she can differentiate herself. as someone whose parents have lived in south carolina for so many years -- it's fascinating to see it at the center. two candidates -- potentially democrats having their first primary in south carolina -- that is extraordinary. i will say that nikki haley, putting aside -- she is polished -- her announcement video was, to my ears and eyes, pitch perfect, and i wasn't expecting that.

i think she -- >> could you say that again for the microphone? >> i really wasn't pressed on a couple levels. she drew a clear contrast with donald trump. she made a case of generational change. not only that, she called out the far left for its excesses, but she also highlighted the nations challenges when it comes to race. mother emmanuel church -- saying republicans have lost seven out of the eight popular votes and making the case that she can expand the base. that is not a ron desantis pitch. that is someone who is trying to carve out their own lane and it was done well. >> it is certainly very clear she wants the job as opposed to trump wondering if she will -- on that run, where do you see -- halle has announced. desantis has not. everyone thinks he will. nikki haley and desantis --

>> she is averaging about 50 -- that is low. most nominees are pulling better than that. but there are in fact a few who polled at her level or worsened went on to win. jimmy carter. bill clinton. donald trump was pulling very low in the early 2016 polls. we forget that. but he skyrocketed once he announced. compare that to someone like ron desantis, who is polling at 32%. there have been five republicans who have polled at that level at the early poll. all but one of them won. rudy giuliani, the lone exception. i'm sorry to bring that up. it's valentine's day! -- >> we would never have met if he had not run. -- there we go. >> you all stay with me. next, governor desantis, giving a small, progressive florida college a massive make over. how does the square with his battle against indoctrination rather than education as he calls it? plus, we go inside the killing of an american aid worker in ukraine. there is new reporting tonight suggesting that the russian missile strike that killed him was a targeted attack. i will talk to the new york times journalist who investigated the horrific video from the moment it happened. and if that chinese spy balloon shot down over the u. s. airspace -- where is, who you may want to consider what else china is working on in the sky. after, this knee on the grass tyson joins me to work -- look at what else is above us. six dishes, like new lobster and shrimp tacos for $17.99. and leave completely lobsessed.

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and scent. it's the electric that recharges you. the all new, all electric eqe sedan from mercedes-benz. see your dealer for exceptional offers on mercedes-benz electric vehicles. tonight desantis versus the new college, a progressive public liberal arts collagen -- it describes itself as a community of free thinkers and governor desantis wants to take take it as a beacon of conservatism. he wants to model the new college over hillsdale college conservative school in michigan. whose alumni list includes numerous republican elected officials. desantis has removed six of new colleges 13 trustees and replace them with handpicked conservatives. the board also placed the school president with someone named richard corcoran, an ally of desantis. and a former house speaker in florida -- and as the tampa bay times reports tonight, corcoran is

getting a salary of $699,000. wow. and, you know, you don't have the state tax in florida. that's more than double his predecessor. everyone is back with me. i was just thinking about that for a second. it goes a lot further. okay. so, let's talk about the money, because i'm trying to figure out what is going on. you know how many times -- he's getting more than double the housing stipend. $4,000 more for an auto stipend. and apparently -- i am just saying. okay? and it is $100,000 more than the reported salary of the -- it's an enormous university. the largest by enrollment in florida. ucf, 68,000. this new college, 700 students. so, look, -- >> money talks. what is it telling us? >> here is what i can tell you about this.

ron desantis, i can't speak to the finances of this university. it is double the amount -- perhaps this college has been under funded for many years since they left their central florida funding system. they have to lobby for their own dollars. they actually don't have huge budgets. so, they don't have a lot of money. apparently, they have a 15 million dollar request into the florida legislature. so, perhaps they will try to cobble that back in this will be a well funded position. what i know is, ron desantis, unlike you just saw this general election video, nikki haley's announcement for president -- ron desantis has this ability, as you said -- he is probably the best person and the republican party taking red meat issues for the base and is throwing red meat at them. it is crt. it is sending venezuelans to martha's vineyard. it is masks in covid.

he can take any culture war issue and make it his own and rile up the gop base. but i don't see him doing a lot of really serious conservative policy reforms. that is something desantis will need to answer. >> this is time and effort. this is very specific and very explicit. >> it is also rank hypocrisy. we're talking about taxpayer dollars here. this small college he wants to turn into a conservative college, this is an ideological exercise of power. it's not about we want things to be more neutral in fact based and not politicized. this is explicit bias -- and with the money we're talking about, it's apparently taxpayer funds. that's the least conservative thing you could possibly imagine. >> by the way, just to be clear, he says it is -- desantis just a few weeks ago, talking about new college. >> it is important that your tax dollars are funding institutions that you can be proud of. the mission that you can have confidence in. and i think you will see, that you will see some really positive results very quickly out of new college.

it is by statute supposed to be the premier honors college in florida. that's the mission. clearly has not met that mission. >> he's doing a great job of turning the state of florida into mississippi. and adding a layer of can corruption to it on top of that. everything this guy does is rank hypocrisy, that makes news anyway. whether it's banning books, which is something that we only see and sort of fed fascist societies. or saying that people can't say the word gay in classrooms. or more recently, sort of firing six trustees on the board of trustees and more than doubling the salary of the president in an effort to turn this thing into liberty university or something like that. this is really leaning into the culture wars. it is clearly a republican primary strategy, i continue to

believe it does have a great disservice in a general election where he will need to justify and explain this. >> here's the question, i understand what you are saying, and then you say, is he playing checkers or chest? if he's playing chess, he's looking at it and talking about in honors college that has not filled its mission, will work. i can go make it conservative if i want. but a lot of people will -- a lot of people are worried. they are necessarily my base. >> i would be playing candy land, not just checkers, but here is the deal. if you look at the dissatisfaction of public education it with republicans, it is sky-high. 78%. compare that to pre-pandemic when it was 58% republicans. but look at americans overall here and this will also give you a good picture -- and what we see is the percentage of americans

dissatisfied with the quality of public education is 68%. that's a bit since 2020, but on this issue, i think the question is, will americans hear the specific ads that ron desantis is talking about or will they hear him just railing against public education at large? because if it's the general, he's in a much better position than if it is the specific. >> he is really trying out this education, not indoctrination. that is what he wants to stick. >> also, look, he is not a traditional conservative, he's more of a conservative populist. so, it's like the traditional conservative -- and penalize them because you don't like their language politics -- here, he is saying, we have been giving money, public funds, to a public university and it

has been underperforming. if we are giving money, less at least make sure the ideology -- and i agree with the message. it's like by the way, this is something that is eminently undoable by the guy who follows you, so it's not a great long term strategy unless you can prove that it is successful. -- >> it is also, according to the mission, the opposite of education not indoctrination. if you want to improve the educational standards, absolutely, should there be more challenge between liberal s and conservatives on campus if you are generally free thinking, yes, but he seems to be making this an ideological exercise to

the extreme. look, it has worked for him to date. he did a lot of the -- plane to the base before three election -- he won by 20 points. a lot of these issues he takes on that horrify liberals, don't necessarily poll badly. -- but using taxpayer dollars to create an ideological right-wing university on the public time, that contradicts the core claim that this is all about trying to remove politics from education. >> i want to push back on this idea that he's a populist. he may be taking on one institution that disagrees with him, that finds itself adverse to him in some way, but it's not like this guy is out here approving minimum wage increases -- or doing any other things that you see more populist people, including some republicans in

the senate these days, trying to do. >> it's a different kind of populist. >> a conservative populist. >> harry, in terms of his decision-making, when we talk about dye -- biden, let's circle back. he is taking as long as he wants to announce. different calculus for desantis, but how does he play it? he has not announced that he is pulling. does he just wait? >> it was funny, i was just crunching the numbers before we get on the air and what i did find was that the number of candidates who get in earlier than the median candidate, more of them win the nomination then those who get in later. on the whole, those who get an earlier, tend to wind then those who get in later. that does not necessarily always hold, but when you look at this overall, donald trump, who right now i think in most people's minds, is the favorite for the republican nomination if not a wholesale favorite, he is somebody who has been in this race for a long period of time and the other thing, which i think back to 2016, in the 2015 cycle, what i recall, yes, i do recall him going down the escalator, but i do also remember him forming exploratory -- >> all right. i think of how early that is relative to where we are the cycle. thank you. and next, a new york times investigation shows an american aid worker was targeted by a guided missile and a deliberate russian attack. that missile attack was captured on video. i will speak to the reporter who broke the story. and the demand for answers from the biden administration over the downed chinese spy balloon and whatever else maybe above us. neil degrasse tyson joins me. what does the giant in t world of the specuof extrat - it's easy to get lost in investment research. introducing j.p. morgan personal advisors. -hey david

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tonight, a new york times investigation shows an american aid worker in ukraine was targeted and killed by a guided missile in a deliberate russian attack. we will walk you through exactly what the investigation shows. first, witnesses tell cnn that u.s. marine veteran pete reed had just arrived on the scene in the eastern city of bakhmut, where some of the fiercest fight us is happening. he was helping a woman who is hurt. and one went later, he came under attack himself. now, the new york times has done some incredible reporting here and slowed down video. you can see the missile frame by frame. they report that it is a laser guided anti tank missile that

could be fired from three miles away. now, the reed's wife spoke to jake tapper today and said it was a deliberate attack, likely from russian forces. >> they were definitely targeted. a lot of people would say, why did he go over there, why did he put himself in harm's way? but it was because of that care that he had four people, it really weighed heavily on him if anyone was suffering. >> out front now, thomas gibbons, the new york times bureau chief did an incredible amount of reporting for this investigation. thomas, i really appreciate your time. so, you shared stills with us from your investigation of the video that show pete reed standing next to a white van that they were using as a makeshift ambulance to transport humanitarian supplies. and i do want to warn our viewers before showing the next image for everyone to understand because this is the strike. this image, as you slowed it down, that is the missile hitting the man. at that moment, we now know pete reed was killed. thomas, can you walk me through how you determined that this was a targeted attack? >> thank you for having me. i think when we think of bakhmut, i have spent time

there and i met pete reed there in eastern ukraine. we think of a lot of indiscriminate shelling an d hitting wherever there are ukrainian positions or some places in the city. but if you look at the video, that is obviously not indiscriminate, it is a tank guided missile fired from a position in order to fire that weapon at a target you need to be able to see what you are shooting at. so, again, slowing down the video, we have incredible visual investigations team that looked at the angle of the shot and measured the missile type that could be caught on camera and the direction at which it is fired. you can tell that it came from roughly russian positions where they have their frontline.

>> and just understand, thomas, from what i understand from this video, he pulls up in that makeshift ambulance, along with other medics, because there is been an incident. someone was hit. they went over to help them. this happens and then the strike happens. after the strike, there's the sound of incoming shelling as the camera continues to roll for 20 minutes. this is the context, before and after. when you say guided, okay, that means it was aimed. but then there is the question of intent, is there any way that the people who aim to the missile did not know who they were aiming at? these were medics helping ukrainian civilians. >> so, pete reed's vehicle, the white van that was targeted, it is not -- pictures taken prior to that event show that it did have a red cross. but there are roughly 4 to 5 vehicles that had come to that scene. they were marked in one way or another that they were ambulance or aid workers. so, the idea that indeed the shooter or the russians who fired the weapon could tell, that is up for debate. at range, what they could see, what they could not see, they might have just been able to see a few blobs in the distance and decided to fire.

>> right now, just in this context so everyone understands, witnesses who spoke to cnn described the attack as a prime example of russia targeting medics. -- they hit a target. they wait a few minutes for first responders and then they hit the same spot again. obviously, here, they did not even hit the same spot. they actually hit the vehicle that pulled up. does this, when you put it all together and you are investigations or to frame by frame, does that sound like what happened? >> i think, judging where in the city this strike took place, two miles behind the front lines, in an elevated position, it was obviously a target opportunity for any russians that were observing the area. the fact that they could see

this spot, fire in the direct line, instead of using a mortar or a howitzer, that uses an arc in lands randomly, kind of shows that they had been watching the area. it is tough to say this is a double tap or not. the wounded that they responded to -- i think that is something that investigators we'll be looking at. >> i know you talk to some -- whether it is their instinct about it if it is a war crime? >> i think, talking to amnesty, talking to -- it is certainly a -- it has been called a potential war crime. it will take a lot of investigation to determine what exactly the russians could or could not see. marking the vehicles around the site -- >> i really appreciate your time and showing all of that and it's just important for everyone to understand what really happen --

>> thank you for having me. >> next, our investigation after the chinese government claimed the spy balloon shot down over the u.s. was a weather balloon, important perspective from neil degrasse tyson, in the space race that the u.s. right now is losing. plus, a couple rescued after more than 200 hours in the rubble after that catastrophic earthquake. doctor sanjay gupta joins me. even if you like a house, lowball the first offer. the house whisperer! this house says use the realtor.com app to see three different estimates. also, don't take advice from people who don't know what they're talking about. realtor.com to each their home.

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and our blacklisted by the united states, openly talking about their words, killer military capabilities. and one of them, i mean, this is incredible. i will just show you. one of their founders put the screen up in a presentation. and points the balloon and says, oh look, there is the united states. fly right over. so, there you have it. out front now, astrophysicist neil degrasse tyson, he's also the author of -- and many other books that i hope people get. but, so, neil, let's start with this. there are bragging about flying over the u.s.. what is your reaction as you hear this whole story and i've watched this unfold? >> if you lift pollutants high and off from the west of the united states, that is what they will do because these are the prevailing jet streams that move a floating object circulating around the earth. so, to say they are targeting

the u.s., wind does that for free. so, i want to put that out there. >> that is why they are so cheap. >> the wind is your jet stream in this. not only that -- by the way, just for context, 1000 or so weather balloons are launched every day around the world. and loaded with helium. they get very high and large. and they float. the way a drop of oil at the bottom of water will flow to the top, slowly, but it will get there. and i guess it kind of hovers there. and it will move wherever the water currents take it. by analogy, i'm just saying, this is not a new phenomenon that you might find balloons in the air. the fact that -- that first balloon, the one that we were certain was from china was very large. and just the idea that we should feel threatened by something that is large and

slow-moving that you can pop, i just, i don't know. i'm more casual about this. >> you made me feel better. john bolton was on. >> i caught that earlier. >> use it as a nuclear delivery system -- but i guess the separate part from this is the u.s. china space race. i know here we are talking -- we are sort of in that in the middle. >> who will control the new high ground? >> right. and so the space force lieutenant general of the u.s. that it's entirely possible they could catch up and surpass us absolutely, talking about china. and they have their own space station now because we didn't work on them on the iss. they went into their own. >> it's that we didn't invite them. we kick them out of the sandbox. they built their own sandbox. what do you expect them to do? >> the nasa administration says

china could be the u.s. to the moon. i mean, we went once, but then we didn't go for 30 years. >> by the way, all this whining, i want to call it whining because i feel strongly about this. had we continued on to the moon and stayed on the moon and on to mars, we would not be looking over our shoulder now, wondering who will catch up to us. we would have stayed ahead of the world. so, to sit back, kick up our feet for five decades, and then all of a sudden say, oh, let's build artemis and go back to the moon, what is motivating you? china says they want to go back to the moon! so, let's be honest with ourselves. we are not being proactive for the high ground, were being reactive. >> and on top of that, just people understand, you are talking about unlimited resources of minerals. everything up there. it's not just for the bragging rights. right? that is all there. never mind the military aspect. of missiles and everything else. >> space basically is unlimited resources. everything that is rare on

earth is common in space. rare earth metals, you know, just rare and location, they're not really rare in abundance. but you look at things that we have fought wars over, access to energy, minerals, water. and there is no end of that in space! so, one of my dreams is that we turn space into our backyard. earth turns space into its backyard. and upon doing so, they would remove an entire category of why we have ever fought wars. which is battling over access to limited resources. so, i think space might be the best hope for peace in the future of civilization. >> and of course now it looks like we are fighting over it. in the context of these objects, three more object shot down. and as you point out, there's a

lot of objects out there. but -- i look at and map of the world and i see the satellites out. there it's terrifying because you're like, oh my god, if they started raining down, we'd all be gone. this whole concept of extraterrestrial came up. they have been congressional hearings about this, about ufos and now we find out most of the more chinese five loons and weather balloons and whatever. in the broader conversation here, does this change or view at all of the nature of extraterrestrial life? >> no, not really. because we have greater capacity. i use this phrase before and i mean i genuinely. given the number of smartphones in the world today, six billion, we are unwittingly crowdsourcing any possible alien invasion. because anyone could take a high resolution video of it, post it instantly, and it would be viral. at least as viral as kittens jumping from the table -- >> anything to do with cats -- hundreds of millions of people look up and see things that could harm us. but by all means -- so, it's odd that we have

expensive planes and expensive missiles to pop balloons. that is a little odd to me. but fine. protect my airspace. now, do i think these are visiting aliens. it would be odd if they were. aliens, moving across the galaxy? dropping some balloons? what alien would do that? i don't want to meet those aliens! [laughter] i don't want the low tech aliens! >> is it high tech to think that you could come in and launch a balloon? >> i am disappointed. yes. we don't know what they are. so, technically they are uf -- they are unidentified flying objects. the government called them -- they were just re-branding. >> they were trying to re-brand. >> before you leave, the stunning images from the james webb. what is your favorite so far? >> i studied the carina nebula. oh my gosh. this is --

oh! i just have to bask! in the majesty of that image! this is a gas cloud. a rigid gas cloud. and the james webb space telescope, because it uses infrared light, infrared can penetrate into gas cause where you bear witness to the birth of stars. stellar nurseries, not only the birth of stars, but the birth of planets. and that is just in front of our nose. it does that in addition to looking at the birth of galaxies in the early universe. it is a cool telescope. >> if it finds a balloon -- [laughter] >> call me if it finds a balloon! >> all right. thank you so much. and next, doctor sanjay gupta on the scene in turkey. hospitals there are scrambling to save the injured from the earthquake. it's already claim more than 40,000 lives. but there is some incredible miracles, tonight.

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far 41,000 known dead across turkey and syria. today, cameras caught a couple being rescued alive beyond the rubble of a five story building. they have been trapped 209 hours prior to that rescue. doctor sanjay gupta has been in turkey today at a hospital where they are treating some of the survivors and he joins me now. sanjay, you have seen horrific scenes in your life as you have traveled the world to disasters. what have you been witnessing tonight with the survivors that are being brought in? i guess the stories of miracles tonight after so many hours. >> they really are. when you think about this, many times it has been that many days but the space and time to get the survivors now to large trauma centers, it can just take some time. so many of the hospitals that are in the quake zone were destroyed themselves. but one of the biggest trauma hospitals here is the one that is taking a majority of the patients. so even just after a few minutes of being 30 doctors that we were talking to all got these pages. we ran up to the path, and they all brought in a patient on a helicopter just a couple hours after a rescue. a 26-year-old woman who have been pinned under the rubble. they were worried she was developing crushed syndrome so they had to rush her in for a merge unseat dialysis. this was, the process they were describing to me that was happening over and over, i will tell you as well, there was a rescue of an eight month

old baby. the most amazing story that i have seen disasters over the world, and i have not heard something like this. the baby was actually hurdled out of the window at the time of the earthquake when the earthquake happened. then the building itself, which is pancaked, the mom survived, pinned herself for 14 hours, eventually gets out and is trying to dig through the rubble for her baby. she can't find her baby. she thinks her baby has died, ultimately a good samaritan had found the baby, taken the baby to the hospital and they were able to connect mom and baby at the hospital. you see the worst of

things, you see some remarkable things as well. people really rising up. and this is ongoing. seven, eight days out now. >> that is an incredible tale. some of these people, 200 hours and they have been in situations where obviously some sort of air pocket, obviously, but no food or water. how are they surviving, and also i should emphasize of course that it has been frigid. >> yeah. you think water alone, the lack of water, people surviving more than 100 hours, it would be unusual. you are looking in places like haiti and nepal, places where we saw other earthquakes. that is what you often heard. most of the rescues took place 90% within the first 24 hours. up to seven days or so after that, you might get another surge of rescues. but we are going on

day eight now. i think that the cold weather, as you mentioned there, sort of is a double edged sword. on one and it makes it very difficult, it is below freezing right now. on the other hand it may reduce the demands for water. perhaps that is playing into this. it could be that there is pools of water that people are able to tap into to survive this long. but again, it is remarkable. we do not know really what the human body is capable of. there is not a lot of data on how long people could survive in these situations but we are seeing those rescues. 200 hours out, i am seeing them just like you are. >> it is absolutely incredible and we are so glad to have you here, your eyes and your heart there to see it. thank you so much, sanjay. >> thank you. >> and thank you very much to all of you for joining us tonight. cnn tonight with alison amerada is next.

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