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Mass Grave Discovered In Ukrainian Town Of Bucha As Russian Troops Withdraw; Russia Strikes Oil Refinery, Fuel Storage Facilities In Odessa; Nearly 2.5 Million Ukrainians Have Fled To Poland Since Invasion Began; CNN Announces Pandemic-Era Migrant Restriction To End May 23; Ukrainian Journalist Among Dozens Allegedly Abducted By Russian Forces; Denzel Washington On Oscar Slap: "Who Are We To Condemn?"; Ukrainian Father Documents Life Inside A War Zone. Aired 9- 10p ET
Aired April 03, 2022 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:00:43]
PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Sunday. And we are continuing to follow disturbing developments in the Ukraine town of Bucha. That is where retreating Russian troops have, by all accounts, left absolute horrors in their wake.
We must warn you the images we're about to see are graphic, but the world must bear witness to what is happening. This is the aftermath of the Russian occupation, bodies, Ukrainian civilians dumped in a mass grave. Local officials say as many as 300 people may have been thrown in these trenches right here.
But some people were treated with even less dignity. More than a dozen bodies just left there in the streets. One victim clearly killed execution style, found with his hands tied behind his back.
No surprise the Russians are claiming these atrocities are fake and staged. But our CNN crew saw this with their very own eyes. President Zelenskyy clearly stunned by this brutality.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translation): When we find people with hands tied behind their back and decapitated, such things I don't understand. I don't comprehend. The kids who were killed and tortured. So it wasn't enough just to kill for those criminals. Indeed, this is genocide.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: The European Union is calling this a massacre and U.S. officials are also expressing horror. They promise a response is coming.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: You can't help but see these images as a punch to the gut. There needs to be accountability for it. But I think the most important thing is we can't become numb to this. We can't normalize this.
NED PRICE, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: Until and unless the Kremlin deescalates, until and unless the violence diminishes, and until and unless these kinds of atrocities come to an end. So I suspect you will very soon see additional pressure applied.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Meanwhile, here are some of the latest headlines as Russia continues to strike in Ukraine. In Mykolaiv, at least 14 people were taken to the hospital today amid continued shelling. And then earlier in the day, the port city of Odessa was also attacked, and a Russian missile strike that hit critical infrastructure and set a fuel depot on fire.
Even as Ukrainian troops clawback territory from Russian troops, there is worried that Russian forces have captured nearly a dozen mayors from towns in Ukraine and are holding them captive. One has been reportedly killed. And this Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister reports that more than 2,600 people were able to be evacuated today through humanitarian corridors and away from some of the areas of heavy fighting.
More now from Odessa, key southern port city were targeted Russian airstrikes destroyed an oil refinery and struck what officials called critical infrastructure. CNN's Ed Lavandera talked to a woman who witnessed it.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Pam, around midnight local time on Sunday night another round of explosions could be heard in Odessa. This comes after this city was shaken by an early morning airstrike.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA (voice-over): The missiles exploded in a startling violent barrage, about six strikes lit up the sky. Russian military officials say the attack on Odessa was launched from the sea and land using high precision missiles. The massive plumes of black swirling smoke covered much of the city of 1 million people. The strikes landed in a largely industrial area, destroying an oil refinery and fuel storage facilities.
(on-camera): Multiple airstrikes hit the port city of Odessa here in southern Ukraine just before sunrise Sunday morning. There were no air raid sirens that went off before the blast and the explosions can be felt and seen from miles away.
(voice-over): Ukrainian officials say there were no injuries but Tatiana Gerasim says the explosions through her from the chair she was sleeping in and window glass shattered all over her.
[21:05:06]
Tatiana volunteers in this building late into the night cooking meals for Ukrainian soldiers. In recent days, she says reconnaissance drones were flying over the fuel storage facility. Two other residents told us they saw the drones as well.
TATIANA GERASIM, ODESSA RESIDENT (through translation): The drones were flying around and I knew they were up to something and could bump the depot. And we've been thinking, where we could hide in case something happens?
LAVANDERA (voice-over): A small pocket of apartment buildings and homes sit just across the street from the bombing site. Families stood outside their homes under the clouds of dark smoke. Watching flames shoot up into the air. The explosions shattered windows and any remaining sense of security. These residents had left.
GERASIM (through translation): Of course, I'm scared. And now they're hitting everywhere. They're doing it in all cities. We know it, we see it.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): The attack on Odessa follows a similar pattern Russian forces have carried out for weeks, hitting fuel storage facilities across the country it claims are supplying their Ukrainian military. But if the Odessa strike is a precise attack, Ukrainian officials say the strikes hours later in the neighboring city of Mykolaiv have no rhyme or reason and are designed to harass and panic civilians.
Despite being this close to the bombing and with tears in her eyes, Tatiana Gerasim says she refuses to leave Ukraine. She tells me, these bastards won't get away with it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: For several weeks, it has been relatively quiet here in Odessa. But Sunday's attacks, the explosions, the airstrikes are the most significant events that have taken place in this city since the beginning of the Russian invasion. Pam?
BROWN: All right, Ed Lavandera, thank you so much.
Well, they fled their homes out of fear. But now hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees are actually trying to return home. Some are running out of money. Others were just tired of sleeping on someone else's floor. Others fear for relatives that are still in harm's way. CNN's Kyung Lah is in Warsaw, Poland Kyung?
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pam in some ways, we've almost become accustomed to these images because they are now so common, almost six weeks into the war. Ukrainians carrying everything they own and bags that they can roll, their babies in tow, except they are not fleeing to safety.
We are on a platform, a bus platform in Warsaw, Poland and what you are looking at are Ukrainian refugees here in Poland. But they are not running from the war. They are returning to Ukraine.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAH (voice-over): At the bus station in Warsaw, Poland, platform is packed. But not with people arriving from Ukraine. They're heading back. Reality of life as a refugee more unbearable than war. Katerina Vovk says after two weeks, she's returning to Kyiv.
(on-camera): What is it like trying to live away from home all this time?
KATERINA VOVK, RETURNING TO KYIV, UKRAINE: So bad. Because you didn't know what was wrong with your relatives, with your family.
LAH (on-camera): It's not a permanent way to live.
VOVK: Yes
(voice-over): The Polish government says 2.5 million Ukrainians had come in since the war began. As of this weekend, 442,000 have gone from Poland back to Ukraine. Housing is a problem as Poland struggles to absorb the influx of women, children and the elderly.
Poland's residents have welcomed Ukrainian families into their homes. But living on strange floors and out of bags can only go on for so long. Poland allows Ukrainians to work and collect government assistance. But there's the red tape standing in long lines with fellow war refugees to file the proper papers.
And then there's childcare and schooling, trying to raise kids with new language and cultural barriers. Poland wants to help. But nearly six weeks into this war, the signs of strain are getting harder to ignore.
MAYOR RAFAL TRZASKOWSKI, WARSAW, POLAND: The Polish people will welcome Ukrainians whatever happens because they are fighting for our freedom and we do understand that. But of course, there is a certain limit, human limit what we can do.
LAH (on-camera): When you say you're at capacity, what do you mean?
TRZASKOWSKI: The population of my city has grown almost by a 20 percent in a month. So of course it puts an enormous strain on the city, on its services. And we are doing our best. We are welcoming everyone who needs help. But, you know, improvisation has to end.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAH: Some of the stories that we're hearing from the people on this platform, returning to Ukraine tonight, a pregnant woman who says that she doesn't want to have her baby alone in a foreign country that her husband is in Ukraine. She wants to return.
[21:10:11]
And a woman who owns a business says her heart is shattered into a million pieces, that she doesn't have a life here in Poland. She wants to go back home. This bus here, heading back to Lviv pulled up just a little while ago, and will be departing in minutes. Pam?
BROWN: Such powerful reporting there, Kyung. Thank you.
And joining me now, CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen, author of "The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden. Peter, so much to discuss here, but we've got to start in Mucha (ph) -- Bucha, I should say, where these mass graves have been found, civilians left dead in the streets. You know, this is not what we associate with the modern rules of warfare. I mean, and just basic human decency, it is just appalling and grotesque. What do these images say to you?
PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think it does fit with a Russian form of modern warfare. And the only thing, you know, Putin reduced Grozny to a parking lot. In 1999, the Russians reduced Aleppo and Homs in Syria to essentially, you know, destroyed these very historic cities. So it's not new for the Russians to behave in this fashion.
BROWN: With what we are seeing though, in Bucha, these are executions, not just --
BERGEN: Yes.
BROWN: -- indiscriminate shelling that we had seen previously. So help our viewers understand how this could up the ante for war crimes probes. I mean, you're hearing stronger rhetoric from officials on this saying, this is -- these are war crimes, this needs to be investigated. Why is that the case?
BERGEN: Well, I think they pull -- I mean, I'm not an expert on war crimes but, I mean, they certainly seem to meet the common sense standard for war crime prosecution, and certainly the International Criminal Court could mount a case against Putin and/or others who've carried out these crimes. But I, you know, I'm not really surprised, to be honest. To me, this is not a surprising development. It's a tragic development. But I put it in the unsurprising category.
BROWN: Do you expect to see more of this?
BERGEN: Yes, I do. Because we're going to -- you know, the Russians are withdrawing. And we're going to, you know, whether it's from Bucha or others -- or other places. And, I mean, these tactics surely are not just a one-off thing.
BROWN: Yes. You don't suddenly just stop doing that, right? I mean, and like you said, the Russians, this has been in Putin's playbook for many years. But it's just, I think, even so, even knowing that, even seeing it historically, with Russia --
BERGEN: Yes.
BROWN: -- it's still such a shock to people to see it.
BERGEN: Well, don't forget, Putin is also, you know, tried to poison or succeeded in poisoning his enemies and countries in the West, I mean.
BROWN: Right.
BERGEN: So the idea that somehow he would apply, you know, kind of some other standard in a country that he's at war with, I just think it's, you know, he is -- he doesn't care about the number of casualties that come with this war. He could care less. And, you know, that's an unfortunate reality.
BROWN: Yes, I think he's -- he has shown that. Even before this latest report in the U.S. announced 300 million and more aid to Ukrainians, including sending Soviet era tanks, I believe switchblade drones as well. I'm just wondering what you think about this sort of delicate balance the U.S. is playing, right, where, on one hand, they're providing assistance, but they keep saying we don't want to escalate anything with Russia, but could send me over these weapons escalate?
BERGEN: Well, you know, there's a recommendation that's been on the table by a bunch of retired U.S. military leaders, and also Eastern European military leaders, which is to provide the Ukrainians with more S-300 missiles. And the reason that that is a smart idea, the S- 300, Ukrainians know how to use them, they're very effective against the kinds of missiles that we just saw in Ed Lavandera's piece from -- in Odessa.
They could have maybe taken out those ballistic missiles. They can also take out high altitude jets. And, you know, the good thing about that idea, it's it falls below the threshold of a formal no-fly zone, but it would -- it, in fact, create one. And so, yes, the Biden administration is in a very difficult sort of spot, because obviously, they do want to provide the weapons that will help Ukrainians as Ukrainians feel that down.
Yet, on the other hand, you know, it has always been a constant, whether it's the Soviet or the Russians, the United States doesn't want to get into a situation where there might be, you know, something that would escalate to some, you know, a nuclear war, obviously, that's the main concern.
BROWN: I want to ask you about these reports from earlier on this week, Russia accusing Ukraine of bombing one of his fuel depots inside Russia. Now, we still don't have accurate reporting. This could be a false flag information. We're hoping to learn more. But if Ukraine is behind it, what do you think the U.S. should say? Should it encourage or discourage this kind of attack?
[21:15:00]
BERGEN: Well, I mean, for the Russians to complain that they're being attacked on their homeland is like, you know, hypocrisy is not Hertzberg (ph) might be a good word, you know. So, I mean, of course, Ukraine is have a right to respond, you know, it's -- in a matter of international law. If I get attacked, we were attacked here on 911. We, you know, international law was very clear about what you can do, and that one of the responses is to attack back.
BROWN: Right.
BERGEN: So, you know, I don't think there's -- I mean, we still don't know, there's still some ambiguity, but I mean, to me, it's like, it didn't -- missiles don't spontaneously flew out of the sky. So, you know, the Ukrainians, and I've guessed, the Ukrainians want some plausible deniability.
Zelenskyy is sort of avoided answering the question. But I think it's entirely in their right to respond like this. And after all, that was a Russian fuel depot that was providing fuel, presumably to Russians who were attacking Ukraine. So it wasn't sort of a, you know, attacking --
BROWN: Right.
BERGEN: -- a school or something like that. So, I mean, we probably can expect more. I mean, what's amazing to make plan is how incompetently the Russians fail to bring down the Ukrainian Air Force and helicopters, right, that are carrying out that they don't have a huge Air Force. I think they have 56 jets, they obviously have some helicopters, but they remain flying.
You know, and in a normal operation, you would have taken those out on day one --
BROWN: Right.
BERGEN: -- or prevented them able to take off by blowing up their airfields or doing something but they didn't.
BROWN: They didn't. Just another example of just how incompetent they have been. Peter Bergen, great to have you on. Thank you for sharing your analysis with us.
BERGEN: Thank you, Pam.
BROWN: Well, as we tried to return to life pre-COVID, there could be a big problem ahead, getting millions of students a healthy meal. A school lunch crisis could get much worse.
Will Tiger Woods make his masters come back this week at Augusta National? He is speaking out. Plus, new border (ph) camps near the U.S.-Mexico border. Soon thousands of people who try and cross into the country daily. Our Polo Sandoval will join us live at the border. Stay with us.
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[21:20:38]
BROWN: The migrant crisis at the U.S. border with Mexico is growing more desperate this weekend, as the bottleneck of people trying to enter the country gets bigger. The rule that is kept those people out until now is about to be lifted.
Let's get right to CNN's Polo Sandoval at the southern border in Texas. So Polo, I'm talking about Title 42. And the news that it's going to be -- it's going to go away has obviously changed the atmosphere there. What more are you learning and seeing and hearing down there at the border?
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So Pamela, for the last two years of the pandemic, we've seen families, a lot of them from Central America and Haiti, basically decided to wait out Title 42 in Mexican border towns. In this particular case, it's -- there's one right across on the other side of this international crossing. The result has been these encampments, where conditions as you're about to see are less than ideal. And that's just putting it lightly.
And CNN has visited these camps before but what we saw and what we found on this latest visit is something different. Renewed hope that that waiting game, this month long waiting game may be soon coming to an end for some.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL (voice-over): From high above, it's a sea of tents in tarps right across the border from South Texas. Ground level. This makeshift migrant camp in Reynosa, Mexico is home to a locals estimate to be about 2,000 asylum seekers, among them Sonia Vazquez.
SONIA VAZQUEZ, MIGRANT FROM GUATEMALA (through translation): (Speaking Foreign Language).
SANDOVAL (voice-over): The 40-year-old Guatemalan mother of three fights back tears as she describes what has kept her in this dangerous border town for over three months now. It's her children and the hope that a Trump era pandemic restriction blocking her from seeking U.S. asylum will soon be lifted. In fact, that's what keeps most of these families here since Title 42 was enacted at the start of the pandemic and then carried over by the Biden administration.
It all but guaranteed that most undocumented people would be turned away or expelled right back to their country of origin. Friday CDC announcement that the policy will be allowed to expire on May 23rd is now spreading throughout this encampment. And with it, new optimism that a chance to petition legally for asylum could finally be inside.
LILIANA LOPEZ, MIGRANT FROM HONDURAS: (Speaking Foreign Language).
SANDOVAL (voice-over): Liliana Lopez says she also decided to wait out Title 42 until it's no longer an obstacle for her and an 11-year-old daughter. She keeps busy housekeeping at a local hotel but with less than certainty after Friday's announcement. Similar encampments have been forming at other Mexican border towns feeling fears of an unprecedented spring migrant surge.
The Department of Homeland Security braces for a worst case scenario in which they project up to 18,000 people could seek asylum at the southern border a day.
RON KLAIN, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: The goal for everyone should be to make sure those asylum claims, those claims of people fleeing persecution are heard in a proper way, those who deserve protection from persecution, get that protection. Those who don't are promptly sent back.
SANDOVAL (voice-over): There may be renewed hope for the migrants waiting near the nation's doorstep, but no guarantees that once in the U.S., they'll be allowed to stay.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: And those two mothers you just heard from also told me that they both entered the country illegally late last year only to be deported the very next day because of Title 42. But they were deported here to Reynosa right across the Rio Grande versus all the way back to Central America.
So tonight, Pamela, as they get ready to basically go back to sleep in that plaza, they still consider themselves lucky that they are still here within view of the bridge that they hope to cross hopefully in the coming weeks. Instead of back in Central America in a journey back to this point, it would take money they don't have and also multiple weeks to get here, not to mention the danger.
BROWN: All right, Polo Sandoval, thanks so much for that.
Ukrainian civilians now living in fear of Russian attacks, and some also worry about being kidnapped by Russian troops. One journalist family says she is among dozens of people abducted. Her story is just ahead.
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[21:28:26]
BROWN: In the week since Vladimir Putin first invaded Ukraine, Ukrainians have been living in fear, fear of attacks by Russian troops and what will happen to their homes, their families their country. In that time, Ukraine says dozens of people have been abducted by Russian forces.
Here is CNN's Ivan Watson with the story of one woman's disappearance and her family's headache. Ivan?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Pamela, amid the destruction and all the fighting caused by Russia's invasion into Ukraine, we've also been hearing anecdotally about Ukrainian civilians disappearing, basically that advancing Russian troops when they get into Ukrainian cities and towns that certain people have been detained. And we met the family of one of those people and they spoke with us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WATSON (voice-over): Masha plays by the banks of the Dnieper River under the watchful eye of her grandmother. In a few days, she'll be turning four but her mother may not be there to celebrate. Iryna Dubchenko is missing. taken captive, her family says, by the Russian military.
ALEXANDRA DUBCHENKO, SISTER OF MISSING JOURNALIST: This is my sister.
WATSON (voice-over): The family last heard from Edina on March 26th, when she called from her home in the Russian occupied village of Arazivka (ph), saying Russian soldiers had searched her house.
DUBCHENKO (through translation): She was very frightened. She told us that the Russian soldiers that we know everything about you and you should be shot on the support for what you did.
WATSON (voice-over): The next day, neighbors say the Russians returned and detained Iryna who works as a freelance journalist.
[21:30:05]
They haven't heard from her since.
ALEXANDRA DUBCHENKO, SISTER OF MISSING JOURNALIST (through translation): They don't know where she's right now. We have no information about her.
WATSON (voice-over): The alleged Russian abduction of Iryna Dubchenko fits a broader pattern. Ukraine's Commissioner for Human Rights accuses Russian forces of detaining at least 55 civilians since invading Ukraine on February 24th. A Kremlin spokesman has told CNN he's not aware of cases of disappearances, but adds that they should be examined carefully.
At least 11 detained civilians are elected mayors like Ivan Fedorov. A security camera caught Russian troops kidnapping Fedorov on March 11 in the Russian occupied town of Melitopol. He says he was later released in a prisoner exchange for nine captive Russian soldiers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking Foreign Language).
WATSON (voice-over): I would happily offer myself in a prisoner exchange for her freedom, Iryna's mother Lirisa (ph) says. Just let her go. She has a child.
Lirisa and her husband tried to rescue Iryna from her Russian occupied village on March 7th.
(on-camera): This is your mother's car.
(voice-over): But they were forced to turn back after gunfire shattered their car window.
(on-camera): Lirisa (ph) is showing me a bullet and casing from around that she says hit her car on March 7th when she tried to reach the village that her daughter lives in. She says Russian soldiers opened fire on her vehicle.
(voice-over): At some point in the first weeks of the war, Iryna took in a wounded Ukrainian soldier. DUBCHENKO (through translation): Iryna told me on the phone that this military guy was at home that she was threatened him changing his bandages.
WATSON (voice-over): When Russian troops search Iryna's house on March 26th. Alexandra says they detained the wounded Ukrainian.
DUBCHENKO (through translation): He was wounded in the arm and the leg. They handcuffed him and took him out right away.
WATSON (voice-over): On March 28th, after Iryna's alleged abduction, her mother made it safely to the occupied village. She says the Russian officer told her that Iryna had been taken to the Russian backed separatist city of Donetsk to be tried in court for sheltering the wounded Ukrainian soldier. But that's not a crime, according to international laws of war.
CORDULA DROEGE, CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS: The first Geneva Convention is a convention that protects wounded and sick soldiers in the field.
WATSON (on-camera): If a civilian treats a wounded combatant, according to the Geneva Convention, is that allowed?
DROEGE: That is not only allowed, it is also protected. Article 18 of the first Geneva Convention is crystal clear about it and says that no one may be molested or convicted for treating wounded.
WATSON (voice-over): CNN reached out to Russia's Ministry of Defense regarding the alleged detention of Iryna Dubchenko, the ministry never replied. Iryna's family now wait in terrifying limbo.
DUBCHENKO (through translation): Masha often asks, where is mama? Every day, I say, she's coming soon. She's coming tomorrow. She'll be here in an hour or two.
WATSON (voice-over): The truth is no one here knows when Masha will see her mother again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WATSON: Pamela, I want to stress how powerless this family feels right now. They have actually tried to go to the occupying Russian force in that village. They've tried to reason with him and tried to ask what they can do to win the release of their daughter and been told no, there's nothing you can do.
And they've also gone to the Ukrainian government, Ukrainian authorities asking for help and they are trying to help but of course, Ukraine and its military is locked into fight to the death against the Russian invasion force, which I repeat leaves this family in terrifying limbo. Pamela?
BROWN: That is just awful. My goodness. Ivan Watson, thank you.
Well, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has posthumously awarded a Ukrainian photographer killed by Russian forces with a medal of bravery. Ukraine's Attorney General Office said this weekend that Maksim Levin was killed by Russian forces near Kyiv. He worked for a number of major Western news outlets including Reuters and the BBC.
Well, just ahead, Tiger Woods returns to the Masters, but will he compete? The golfing great says it will be a game time decision. A live report from Augusta National just ahead.
Plus, Denzel Washington was one of the first people to talk to Will Smith after the slap scene round the world. He's talking about it tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DENZEL WASHINGTON, ACTOR: For whatever reason, the devil got ahold of him, that circumstance.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:38:34]
BROWN: Well, it has been a week since the Oscar moment we will never forget. And much sentiment seems to be on the side of Chris Rock who carried on after getting assaulted on live TV. But Oscar winner Denzel Washington is voicing continued support for his friend Will Smith. Washington was a guest and speaker Saturday at a Leadership Summit hosted by Bishop T.D. Jakes.
And during that discussion, he was asked about the now infamous slap and what happened afterward.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WASHINGTON: Fortunately, there were people there, not just me but others in the gap, Tyler Perry, came right immediately right over there with me and some players, you know, keep it I want to say what we talked about but -- there but for the grace of God, go any of us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
WASHINGTON: You know, who are we to condemn? You know, I don't know all the ins and outs of the situation but I know the only solution was prayer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Will Smith has now resigned from the Motion Picture Academy but the board says it will discuss the possibility of further disciplinary action.
Well the first round of the 2022 Masters tees off on Thursday and it could mark the professional return of Tiger Woods. Who could forget Tigers incredible win in 2019 to clenches first major in over a decade? He's been away from golf since early 2021 rehabbing from a car crash that seriously injured his leg.
[21:40:13]
I'm going to bring in CNN's Patrick Snell and Golf Digest staff writer Daniel Rapaport live from Augusta. Hi there. So, Patrick, while the suspense, is he going to play or not? We are just days away at this point.
PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Hi, Pamela. Yes, it would be fantastic to believe that he will tear it off on Thursday. And Dan and I were just discussing that and we're both actually on the same page. We feel he's probably come too far to not go ahead and tee off on Thursday. But these are really exciting times, incredible, that the story of Tiger Woods is far from being written when you consider all he has been through, Pamela, earlier last year, that horrific car crash and the subsequent surgeries he went through, but never discount Tiger Woods. Never write this guy off because he thrives on proving people wrong.
BROWN: He does. And Dan, he clearly loves it in Augusta, right? I mean, tell us about his history at this historic course.
DANIEL RAPAPORT, STAFF WRITER, GOLF DIGEST: Well, this is gold's biggest event and there's no other tournament that has sort of signified the milestones in Tiger's career quite like the Masters. In 1997, it's where he showed the world what their next sporting icon looked like becoming -- winning by 12 shots and really, that was his emergence.
And in 2001, he completes the Tiger slam winning four professional major championships in a row. In 2005, he chips in that famous chip in with a ball hangs on the lip and then finally falls in. And then he adds another one in 2019 to complete one of the most incredible comebacks in sporting history.
So, in the incredible career of Tiger Woods that has spanned so many golf courses and around the world, Augusta National does stick out as sort of the one for him, the most synonymous with Tiger's career.
BROWN: And Patrick, we last saw Tiger playing a father-son tournament a few months ago and he looks pretty good, right? Of course, that is not the Masters. Is he struggling with his mindset or his physical ability to do it you think? What's at play here?
SNELL: Yes, father and son did look pretty good on that occasion, Pamela. In Orlando, a second place finish it was on that occasion. But you're absolutely right, of course, the Masters and all-together different challenge right down. There's no tournament quite like it on the golfing international landscape.
But I'll tell you this, Tiger Woods would not -- wouldn't be here if he didn't believe that he could go on and when Tiger Woods just doesn't enter tournaments unless he feels he can go on and win them. He is driven by history. He wants that coveted six Masters green jacket. He wants career major number 16. He's all about Ws as he calls them victories. V for victory. Tiger Woods, you discount him at your peril, but it is going to be fascinating, Dan, how he handles it mentally, how his body will recover from walking the notoriously grueling course that is Augusta National at some 7,500 yards right?
RAPAPORT: Yes.
SNELL: That's very fascinating.
RAPAPORT: It's actually been lengthened a little bit. Look, he did look great playing in Florida with his son, but it was basically a different sport from what you're going to see this week. It was a dead flat golf course. It was a scramble format.
Tiger only had to hit the shots that he wanted to hit. And the most telling part, he was in a golf cart. He didn't have to walk between shots. And I know people think of golf is, oh, it's so easy just hitting it. But it's physical out here at this level, especially on a course like Augusta National that's up and down.
So for a guy whose career has been so complicated and so intricate, the question now is so fascinatingly simple, can he walk the golf course? Can he walk? Can it surgically rebuilt right leg, hold up for four straight rounds on maybe the hilliest course that these guys play all years? So while it was very encouraging to see what we saw in Florida, this is a whole new ballgame.
SNELL: So he plays Thursday?
RAPAPORT: I think he plays Thursday. At this point, I'd be very surprised if he doesn't.
SNELL: And remember, Pamela, he said it's going to be a game time decision as well.
BROWN: That's the big question, right, Patrick, like --
RAPAPORT: He is not the favorite.
BROWN: OK, go ahead.
RAPAPORT: He -- yes, he's not the favorite. I mean, having not played a tournament since November of 2020. Look, I'm not doubting Tiger Woods, I've learned my lesson. He's playing this week, which is incredible, given the events of 14 months ago. So I'll never count him out. But this is a big ask.
There's a lot of great players who have been playing for the last -- whatever how many months who are playing great Tiger, he needs to get his reps and he needs to feel those tournament nerves. So if he does play, I think making the cut would be a big accomplishment.
I don't not in his mind, but in mere mortals to come back from a surgically rebuilt right leg and make the cut 14 months after that car accident would be an incredible success. SNELL: Yes, it's just phenomenal. And it's just incredible the way he just takes himself to new levels as well. The whole dynamic of son Charlie as well, fascinating to see.
BROWN: It is. We're all going to be watching, watching and waiting to see what happen. But your money is on the fact he will play, so we'll see. We will see.
Patrick Snell, Dan Rapaport, thank you.
[21:45:08]
School lunches for children across the country are in jeopardy tonight and that is because a federal program that is fed children for two years is about to expire. Up next, CNN's S.E. Cupp joins me to explain why she thinks the program is crucial for kids. We'll be right back.
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BROWN: Millions of American kids who have come to rely on breakfast and lunch provided by their school could soon be without those meals. That is unless Congress extends funding for the Child Nutrition Waivers Program. That program was a hallmark of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act passed in 2020. And it lets schools serve free and reduced price meals to every student without requiring them to prove they're eligible.
According to the USDA, nearly 30 million kids now receive the free meals that is up from 20 million before the pandemic. But the program expires in June, leaving those 10 million additional students ineligible.
My next guest is a political commentator here at CNN. She is also an ambassador for No Kid Hungry, a nonprofit working to solve childhood hunger, clearly an issue near and dear to your heart. S.E., thank you so much for taking the time out to talk with us. First off, explain a little bit about these waivers, how they work and why you think it's important from your perspective, why you think they have been so helpful for these kids?
[21:50:06]
S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well just like about every other sector, education has really struggled to meet financial goals in COVID and to get the resources that they need. So these extensions were vital because schools are already feeling some financial burdens and trying to get enough food and nutritional food. And that was when kids could pay for it.
So these extensions were really, really helpful, not just for the kids, but for the schools. And so, you know, looking forward to just one more year of this, I think, really would have helped. But Pam, I think it's also important to talk about the fact that when it comes to child hunger, we can't just keep doing these extensions and putting band aids on top of band aids, we need some serious long-term policy solutions to handle child hunger. It can't just be an extension one year or not at the whim of Congress.
BROWN: Right, because that's putting a band aid on the issue, right, you're not solving the problem. And that's -- that is a critical point.
CUPP: Right.
BROWN: But in terms of this program, specifically, if it does expire in June, and Congress doesn't do anything to extend it, you know, this is coming at a time when food costs are rising, right? We're all feeling -- seeing what is happening --
CUPP: Yes.
BROWN: -- with inflation, particularly when it comes to the grocery store prices of food. At the same time, there are Republican lawmakers, they are pushing back against funding these waivers. Talk to us a little bit about the politics behind this.
CUPP: Well, it's so gross, Pam, because when it comes to child hunger, I can't think of another issue around which politics should just not get involved or insert itself. But alas, here we are, Republicans are playing COVID politics with child hunger. They want COVID to be gone. And they don't want the government to keep paying for COVID era stuff, they've said as much. And they don't want to keep doing that into perpetuity.
Now, where Democrats have failed is, like I said, in sort of this false premise that an extension, while a vital program for a year is really tackling child hunger, which is endemic, which has so many different, you know, problems to grapple with, from school consolidation to the opioid crisis. I mean, really, everything's involved when you talk about child hunger.
So I think everyone needs to put their politics down and put on their grown up pants and decide once and for all, that it is unacceptable for a child in this country to be hungry.
BROWN: 100 percent, I mean, 100 percent, right? No child should ever be hungry, no child should go to bed hungry, no child should be hungry in school and not able to focus and learn. I mean, it's just -- it's --
CUPP: Well that's -- I mean, Pam, that's the other thing. When I talk about child hunger, it's not just -- it's important to think, not just about a kid being hungry, that's bad enough. But then the anxiety and stress of being food insecure, and not knowing where your next meal is coming from. We're adults, and we know how anxiety can impact our mental health in our daily life.
Imagine being five, or 10, or 15. And having that food insecurity and then being put in a classroom and asked to learn, and focus and perform and deal with your social challenges of school. We shouldn't ask any of our kids to have to do that. And we are, we are regularly.
BROWN: It's so -- it's just absurd, you know, so many adults think, OK, what am I going to have for lunch? Should I have this or that, you know, you're trying to figure out what meal you're going to have. But to think all these kids are wondering, am I going to be able to have lunch? Can I even have lunch? And to be insecure about that is just -- it's just horrendous to me.
I'm wondering --
CUPP: Well, and that creates --
BROWN: Go ahead.
CUPP: Well, that -- I mean, importantly, that stress that you're talking about, creates long-term social developmental, emotional, mental problems that don't just go away then a child can carry for years, in fact, even a lifetime. So it really is all of our responsibility to finally take this problem head on not with band aids and definitely not with politics.
BROWN: S.E. Cupp, thank you so much and thank you for your tremendous work --
CUPP: Thanks for talking about this, Pam.
BROWN: Absolutely. It's such an important issue and we really appreciate all your hard work fighting this, fighting childhood hunger. It's so important. Thank you, S.E.
CUPP: Thanks. Goodnight.
BROWN: A horrific scene in Ukraine, civilians killed and their bodies left line in the streets. Ahead, CNN's Fred Pleitgen reveals what he saw in the town of Bucha. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. We'll be back.
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[21:59:06]
BROWN: Two divergent sounds of war are playing out for Ukrainian father and his infant son. Alex Dayrabekov made it out of a Kyiv suburb just before Russian strikes destroyed his apartment building. Well since then, he's been recording videos of life inside a warzone all while taking care of his infant son.
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(SINGING)
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BROWN: How sweet. Is that the Beatle song? Yesterday, as you can see, quite soothing for his little baby. But what is shocking is that his son doesn't seem to be bothered by the sound of air raid sirens. CNN Jim Acosta talked to Alex earlier.
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JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Alex, what do you think you're going to tell your son?
