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Russians Fleeing Country to Escape Military Draft; Public Anger Growing in Iran Over Death of Mahsa Amini; Canada Bracing as Hurricane Fiona Approaches; World Bank President Reverses Course on Climate Change; Ukrainians Find Destroyed Homes After Russian Retreat; Britain's Lower-Income Families Bear the Brunt of Inflation. Aired 12- 12:45a ET
Aired September 23, 2022 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, I'm John Vause. Ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM.
Dodging the draft with a rush of the border. Putin's mobilization orders sparked an exodus out and protests across Russia.
Iran is offline. With the Internet shut down, concerns are growing that anti-government protesters will be the target of a brutal mass crackdown.
On Tuesday, the climate change denier. By Thursday, David Malpass had found science and reason. The sudden and unlikely conversion of the president of the World Bank.
ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with John Vause.
VAUSE: Despite recent heavy losses on the battlefield in Ukraine, or maybe because of them, Moscow is paving the way to annex the occupied territories of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia. Voting will soon begin in all four regions in referendums on joining the Russian Federation.
The vote has been described as a sham and a fraud by Ukrainian leaders. Similar denouncement has come from the U.S. and Europe. The outcome is considered a foregone conclusion, which means 15 percent of Ukraine's sovereign territory will likely vote in a dodgy referendum in favor of joining Russia.
Illegal annexation is expected to follow a once officially Russian territory of justification for the Kremlin to escalate the war. An escalation is already underway with the call-up of 300,000 reservists.
On social media, families are posting images of tearful goodbyes. Fathers and sons boarding buses, with a very different scene at border crossings across Russia. Cars lined up as far as the eye can see, heading to Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Finland, and Georgia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is urging Russians to continue their protests against the draft.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Fifty- five thousand Russian soldiers died in this war in six months. Tens of thousands wounded, maimed. Do you want more? No? Then protest. Fight, run away or surrender into Ukrainian captivity. These are the options for you to survive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So far, it seems Putin's war of choice has only deepened the divisions within Russia, and that extends to the military. Sources familiar with U.S. intelligence tell CNN Russian field officers are arguing among themselves, bristling at direct orders from President Putin.
CNN's Matthew Chance has more now on the growing opposition to the war.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Suddenly, an exodus across Russia's borders. Social media now filled with images like these near the country's Southern frontiers of vehicles, backed up out of sight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
CHANCE (voice-over): "Everyone is on the run from Russia," the male voice says. Endless cars. It's mind-boggling.
In the West, towards Finland, border officials also reporting significantly higher traffic. Nearly 5,000 crossing in a single day were expected by the weekend, as Russians made for the exits.
Across Russia, there's a growing sense of alarm, even anger at the call-up of reservists to fight in Ukraine.
[00:05:04]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (CHANTING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (CHANTING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (CHANTING)
CHANCE (voice-over): More than 1,300 protestors have already been detained, many of them women, terrified their husbands and sons will be killed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
CHANCE (voice-over): "I've got two kids of conscription age," says this protestors. "I brought them up alone, and I don't want to lose them," she cried. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
CHANCE (voice-over): "And for what?" asks her friend.
"Just so they can kill the sons of other mothers," she answers.
But the mobilization is taking place, regardless. Images of reservists like these boarding a military transporter in the Russian far East show how many are heeding the call to arms.
At assembly points, families are saying emotional good-byes before their men, some apparently in middle age, are bused away, as what was always cast as a limited special military operation feels more and more like a full-blown war.
Matthew Chance, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Steve Hall is a CNN national security analyst, as well as the former chief of Russia operations for the CIA.
Good to see you. It's been a while, Steve.
STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Great to be here.
VAUSE: OK, so how do these sham referendums. I want you to listen to the Russian foreign minister speaking at the U.N. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER (through translator): Over the past few years, the Kyiv regime has conducted a frontal assault on the Russian language and brazenly trampled on the rights of Russian and Russian-speaking people in Ukraine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: None of that is true, but then again, that doesn't really matter, does it, in terms of the desired outcome of the vote, as far as Moscow is concerned.
HALL: No, not at all. I mean, you know, Sergey Lavrov will be, you know, forever coming up with new reasons as to why it is that the Russians had to go in and, you know, fill in the blanks, save the Russians in Ukraine. Stop the Nazis from taking over that part of the world. You know, the fantasies just continue.
What they really want to do, of course, is use this referenda to essentially annex the Donbas and other parts to the South of the country.
VAUSE: Yes. And they've got to be full with Crimea (ph), right? The cities (UNINTELLIGIBLE)
HALL: Yes. No, exactly. And it -- the real question here is, you know, what will stop them or what will be enough for them. In other words, will it be enough if they can walk away with Donbas and the land bridge over to already-annexed Crimea.
Of course, I think the Ukrainians will have quite a bit to say about it, because they're having none of it. They're -- these referenda are not going to stop the Ukrainians from attacking in those areas, which are, of course, part of their country.
VAUSE: It also comes at a time when Putin seems to be struggling.
What was interesting, a few weeks ago, Carnegie (ph) reported on Russian support for the war. They found fewer Russians were actually paying attention to the war, so it had become normalized.
But they added this: "As long as the border remains open for the most dissatisfied Russians to leave the country and there is no mass mobilization order compelling the average person to send their sons and daughters to fight next door, the feeling of basic normality is likely to continue."
So there's talk that the borders could be closed. A visa ban means Russians can't go to all other countries, anyway. And now this mobilization is underway.
How does this eat away at Putin's support for the war, a war which was meant to actually boost his support?
HALL: Well, starting with the support, you know, it's always really difficult to -- to sort of understand what the level of support is inside of Russia, even if you've got, you know, the Levada Center and others, which are not only independent. You're still inside of Russia, so everybody knows what the right answer is.
But you're absolutely right. Things have changed significantly. All of the Baltic countries have closed their borders to the Russians. The Finns have not yet done that, but they've made it very, very difficult.
So there are fewer and fewer places that not only now oligarchs can go to say, you know, get on their yachts, but just common Russian young men who are trying to avoid being drafted.
And that's going to -- that really increases the pressure inside of Russia and increases the likelihood for significant social distress and the fraying of the system, which I think is the thing that threatens Putin the most.
Because if that system that he -- Putinism (ph), what he founded and what all of the folks that surround him, his -- his strong supporters, to include the heads of the security services, all of those very strong people, if they see the system go too badly in the wrong direction, and it starts fraying too much, then Putin himself is at risk.
And that's a big -- that's a big issue, I think, not just for Russia but for the international community, as well. VAUSE: CNN is reporting Russian President Vladimir Putin is himself
giving directions directly to generals in the field, a highly unusual management tactic in the modern military that sources said hints of the dysfunctional command structure that has plagued Russia's war from the beginning.
And then there is this assessment of Putin from the French president on why Putin's doing what he's doing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT: I think this is a series of resentment. This is a strategy of hegemony in the region. And I would say this is a post-COVID-19 consequence. Isolation.
[00:10:07]
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Because he's been so isolated?
MACRON: I think so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So what he's saying is that a man filled with resentment, who possibly has questionable mental health right now, is giving direct orders to the military. How does this end?
HALL: Yes, not well. I mean, I'm no military expert but, you know, some of my friends are; and they tell me that, of course, when the head of state, when the president, or the prime minister, starts communicating directly with battlefield generals, you know, it's got an amazingly divisive effect within the fighting force.
And they don't know whether to listen to the president, or listen to their commanding officers. So that's just not the way it's done. It's yet another really bad sign for the Russian military.
I mean, we've seen all of the failures that they've had inside of Ukraine on the battle field. Now we have this very bad leadership scenario, where Putin himself feels he has to pick up the phone and call the generals.
Do we really think that conscription of as many people as Russia believes it needs to call up, do you think that's going to go any smoother? I don't think so.
VAUSE: yes. It does seem like there is a turning point here. But whether Putin is in enough trouble to change his course, we'll wait and see.
Steve, thanks so much for being with us. We really appreciate it.
HALL: Sure, my pleasure.
VAUSE: Iran has gone dark, with the government apparently ordering a total shutdown of the Internet as it struggles to contain nationwide protests over the death of a young woman in custody of the Morality Police.
And with no Internet, there's no longer a steady flow of images from inside the country. No way to know for certain if a brutal crackdown is or is not underway.
Women have been leading these demonstrations, which are now posing the most serious challenges in years to Tehran's hardline regime, which has already responded with riot police, tear gas, water cannons.
At least 17 people have reportedly been killed. Public anger over the death of Mahsa Amini has continued to grow. The 22-year-old was arrested last week by the Morality Police, allegedly for violating the Islamic dress code for women.
Wednesday, in a rare show of defiance, protestors were seen rushing security forces as onlookers cheered.
The U.S. has now imposed more sanctions on the regime, specifically targeting the Morality Police. Iran's president, in New York for the U.N. General Assembly, said Amini's death is under investigation. Then he complained about the international backlash.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EBRAHIM RAISI, IRANIAN PRESIDENT: When these incidents occur all over the world, the same standard must be applied to them. Calling for investigations only on this issue. Why not call for the exact same thing for those who lose their lives at the hands of law enforcement and other agents throughout the West, Europe, North America, the United States of America.
Those who suffer unjust beatings, why are there are no investigations that follow?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The family of Mahsa Amini has publicly accused Iran's leaders of lying about the circumstances around her mysterious death. More details now from CNN's Jomana Karadsheh.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The world knows her as Mahsa. To her family, she was the kind and shy Gina. That's her Kurdish name.
Her cousin in Norway sharing these family photos with CNN of happier times from their childhood in Iran.
DIAKO AILI, MAHSA AMINI'S COUSIN: She was very -- a very happy girl, living in a not-so-good country with dreams that I don't maybe know about. Very respectful, and very kind, good-hearted, took care of her mother and brother.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Amini's death, after being taken into the custody of the Morality Police last week, has sparked unprecedented protests. Calls for accountability for her death have turned into cries for freedoms, as a generation of Iranians has never known.
With women at the forefront of the protest, burning the head scarves they've been forced to wear for decades.
AILI: It makes me sad and happy in one way, because it's sad that someone's life has to go away for these things to start, and I know that when they demonstrated in Iran, it's not like it was demonstrated in America, or in Norway, or in Sweden. They're risking their lives.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Amini's family is demanding justice. They don't trust the government's investigation. They want the truth they accuse authorities of covering up.
Last week, police released this edited CCTV video. They say it shows Amini at the so-called reeducation center where you can see her collapsing.
Police say she was taken, because she didn't abide by their strict Islamic dress code. They claim the 22-year-old appeared unwell, had a heart attack, and collapsed into a coma. She died in hospital three days later.
Family members say they saw her beaten up by the Morality Police as she was dragged away. It was the last time they saw her awake. They say doctors told them she had severe head injuries, swollen limbs, and had a heart attack.
AILI: She had no heart disease or anything. And it was damage to her head. Like, she was bleeding out her ear.
[00:15:08]
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Violent acts of repression by this notorious force known as the Morality Police have been on the rise, according to the U.N. This video from an activist group reports to show those abuses. CNN can't independently verify the circumstances of this video or when it was filmed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
KARADSHEH (voice-over): The fury on Iran's streets has been years in the making. Amini's death appears to have been the final straw.
AILI: I want the world to know that she was a good person. Her life didn't end for nothing. I hope this is going to start something to maybe -- towards to get a better Iran, more free Iran.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) AILI: I don't know. I'm going to start crying.
KARADSHEH (voice-over): Diaiko's overcome with emotions, hopes for the homeland he hasn't seen in more than ten years and the pain of a family, grieving their beloved Gina.
Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Istanbul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: A former senior Chinese official convicted of bribery has actually received a life sentence. According to state media, an intermediate court sentenced the former justice minister to death after he was found guilty of accepting close to 16 and a half million dollars in bribes from 2005 to 2021.
The sentence has now been commuted.
His arrest comes amid a government crackdown ahead of a key Communist Party Congress, when President Xi Jinping is expected to secure an unprecedented third term.
Well, Fiona is done with the Caribbean. And when we come back, this powerful hurricane is now heading for Bermuda and Canada. We'll have the forecast.
Also, the president of the World Bank changing course on climate change. Find out what he said that shocked and outraged climate advocates earlier this week.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: Eastern Canada bracing for what could be the strongest storm ever to hit the region. Hurricane Fiona is showing no signs of weakening as it makes its way up the Atlantic.
Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Western Newfoundland are expected to be hardest hit. Hurricane warning has been issued for Bermuda, with Fiona expected to brush past in the hours ahead.
And hundreds of thousands of people in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic still without clean water and power, as they continue to recover from the devastation caused by Fiona earlier this week.
Let's bring in CNN meteorologist Derek van Dam. So where is this one heading, and it's quite strong, huh?
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's right. Residents of the Eastern Canadian Atlantic right now bracing themselves for what could be a once-in-a-generation storm.
The latest information to pass along to our viewers, especially some of our residents living across Eastern Canada. We would have had tropical storm watches and hurricane watches.
Those have now been upgraded to hurricane warnings and tropical storm warnings for Prince Edward Islands, much of Nova Scotia, and into the Western sections of Newfoundland, as well.
[00:20:04]
This is a significant storm that is lashing Bermuda, as we speak. But it is racing Northward, and that is why we know that it's got its eyes set on the Eastern sections of Canada.
Two hundred and fifteen kilometer-per-hour sustained winds, that makes this an equivalent to a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane. And it is large.
This storm stretches over 700 miles in all directions, roughly 1,300 kilometers. And if you track the history of this storm, it is already impacted two territories, that being the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico, and also the British territories of the Turks and Caicos, and now, Bermuda.
Remember, as it moved over Puerto Rico, it knocked out power to much of the U.S. territory, in fact, 100 percent blackout at one stage. Now, 63 percent of this territory without power, mostly across the Southern sections.
But it raced over the Bahamas and now impacting Bermuda, will likely to take up power there and also cause some destruction. The good news for them is that the center of the storm, or the strongest part of Fiona, is still offshore.
Regardless, hurricane warnings expected -- are ongoing for them. The storm races Northward and then Saturday morning, that is the go time for the Eastern Canadian shoreline of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.
That's where we expect winds in excess of 100 kilometers per hour. This is an area that may not be too used to storms of this magnitude, this power. As it races North, we expect some of the wave heights here across the Gulf of St. Lawrence to exceed 15 meters in the open ocean.
And get this, John. It is so far North. The system is actually going to be high enough in latitude that it will bring snowfall to Eastern Canada, as well. Just a wild, wild week of weather.
VAUSE: Yes. And it is -- I hate to say this, but it is a new normal.
VAN DAM: Yes, unmistakably.
VAUSE: Derek, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
It has not been a good week for the president of the World Bank, David Malpass and whether or not he believes in the science of global warming. On Thursday, on CNN, he tried to clear the air.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you agree that the burning of fossil fuels is contributing to global warming?
DAVID MALPASS, PRESIDENT, WORLD BANK: Yes, clearly. I was, you know, on a panel on Tuesday where that wasn't the question. And so as we look at it, you know, it is important how people frame their question. And then I don't always do the best job in answering -- in answering questions, or hearing what the questions are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Quite the sudden and unexpected embrace of science and reality for Malpass, because just two days earlier, when a "New York Times" reporter asked almost the exact same question, what came next was an awkward exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you accept the scientific consensus that the man-made burning of fossil fuels is rapidly and dangerously warming the planet?
MALPASS: I don't know if everyone wants to comment on that. What we are doing is having impactful projects that reduce --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you answer the question?
MALPASS: We have a mission of a World Bank that's powerful.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you answer the question?
MALPASS: Is that -- I don't even know -- I'm not a scientist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Leah Stokes is an associate professor at the University of California in Santa Barbara, specializing and focusing on climate and energy policy.
Welcome to the show.
LEAH STOKES, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA: Thanks so much for having me on.
VAUSE: OK. So the old Russian provinces, you know, judge a man not by words but by deeds. And on that, the former U.S. vice president, Al Gore, has some issues with the World Bank and what it's been doing with Malpass as president. Here's Al Gore.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you're in Nigeria, and you want to privately finance a new solar farm -- very profitable -- you have to pay an interest rate seven times higher than what the OECD countries pay. If you want to build a wind farm in Brazil, you have to pay interest three times higher than what the U.S. pays.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So the accusation here is that under Malpass, the World Bank has not been helping poorer nations deal with climate change or offering loans on favorable terms.
So in this instance, is that actually accurate? Is that true?
STOKES: Yes. You know, former Vice President Al Gore is really challenging Malpass. He said that he's not seeing the kinds of action when it comes to climate change that we should be expecting out of the World Bank.
And the crazy thing was that, when "The New York Times" journalist, David Gelles, pushed him on this, he couldn't even say that he really believed in climate science.
This is the year 2022. The fact that we would have someone at the head of the World Bank who can't say that climate change is real and happening now, it's quite disgusting.
And we're seeing that reflected in the actions of the bank, in terms of the fact that they're still lending money to fossil fuel projects and that, clearly, they're not doing enough on clean energy.
And I can't imagine, if I worked at the World Bank, and I was trying to lead the world on climate action, I'd be very happy to see that the head of the World Bank can't even answer basic questions about climate science.
VAUSE: So when Malpass turns up on CNN and says, Yes, I do believe that climate change is real. It's caused by burning fossil fuels by men's activity. Do you believe that or do you think he's just saying it?
[06:25:08]
STOKES: He was pushed, right? People started to say that he should be fired, that he should resign from his post.
So now he's singing a different tuned, understanding that the people are very worried about climate change and to have somebody in as much power and such a powerful position is him, saying this, they are only disgusted. Suddenly, he's starting to change his mind.
But I'll tell you, David Gelles, that "New York Times" journalist, he really pushed him. He gave him many opportunities to speak up. He only did it afterward, when somebody else could probably script the words for him.
So this does not bode well for the World Bank, leading on climate change in the way that we know it can, and it really must.
VAUSE: The U.S. gets to appoint the head of the World Bank. The Europeans get to choose the IMF. And so here's the U.S. president, who appointed Malpass. Here we go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I withdrew the United States from the unfair and one-sided Paris Climate Accord. A very unfair act for the United States. The Paris Accord was not designed to save the environment. It was designed to kill the American economy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Is there any surprise that Donald Trump would appoint a climate denier to lead the World Bank?
STOKES: No, it's really unfortunate. This is yet another legacy that's sort of a hangover of the Trump administration. The fact that we have somebody in such a position of power, not doing the right thing.
You know, the World Bank is starting to move in a better direction. It's saying it wants to give lending in line with the Paris agreement. Activists have rightly pointed out that we don't really understand the details of that.
And when they claim they're giving $37 billion last year, let's say for climate, we again don't really know what that means. We can't look under the hood about what exactly those loans are.
And we do know that they are continuing to lend money to fossil gas projects. Things like LNG terminals, as well as power plants. That is completely out of line with the Paris agreement.
So we really need to have leadership at the World Bank that it's pushing us towards renewable energy. And I really applaud former vice president, Al Gore, in raising this issue and really showing the world what Malpass is really about.
VAUSE: And such is Al Gore, who's raising some concerns about Malpas. One of the directors of the World Bank tweeted, "We are concerned about the confusing signals about scientific evidence of climate change from the top of the World Bank."
So presumably, if Malpass is appointed by a U.S. president, he can be fired by U.S. president. On that, the presidential envoy for climate change, John Kerry, would not comment on Joe Biden's stance.
But he added this. John Kerry said, "I've been pushing for months, along with others in the ministration, and it's an open door, not pushing against a shut door to get Malpass removed."
So how about that door that just doesn't hit you in the way out door? You know, why is this taking so long?
STOKES: Well, you know, it's not quite that simple. There has to be a process around removing a person who's head of the World Bank. As I understand it, it hasn't happened before. So this would be quite unprecedented.
But you know what else? Climate change is also unprecedented. We can't have climate deniers leading massive global institutions and expect them to do the right thing.
And we see with those comments that other people who work at the World Bank, and who care a lot about climate change, and you want to be doing the right thing, they can't be feeling very good about reporting to someone who was so out of step with reality.
VAUSE: Yes. Leah Stokes, thank so much for being with us. We really appreciate your insights.
STOKES: Thanks for having me on.
VAUSE: When we come back, the bittersweet reality of life after liberation. Returning home, when home is no longer there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:31:02]
VAUSE: Allies at the U.S. and the United Nations lashed out at Russia in a meeting of the Security Council Thursday during a week that's seen Moscow stepping up action against Ukraine.
The Ukrainian foreign minister criticized Moscow's effort to draft hundreds of thousands of troops. And U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described efforts to seize Ukrainian territory as repudiation of diplomacy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The very international order that we have gathered here to uphold is being shredded before our eyes. We cannot, we will not allow President Putin to get away with it.
DMYTRO KULEBA, UKRAINIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Yesterday, Putin announced mobilization. But what he really announced, before the whole world, was his defeat. You can draft 300, 500,000 people, but you will never win this war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, left the chamber immediately after delivering his own remarks, where he dismissed the world's condemnation, while blaming Kyiv for the invasion.
A return home, where many homes are no longer there. Ukrainians are starting to come back to nearly liberated areas in the East, though CNN's Ben Wedeman reports that many are finding out there's not much left to return to.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Anatoly (ph) is trying to make his demolished house a home again, one nail at a time.
But without a roof, plastic sheeting on the windows won't make much of a difference. This is all they could salvage.
Anatoly (ph) is overwhelmed by what he and his wife, Svetlana (ph), found when they returned to their village of Putinyanka (ph).
"What can I say?" he asks. "You can see for yourself." Svetlana (ph) was born in this house, 53 years ago. Her reaction?
"Pain," she says. "Shock, pain, terrible pain and bitterness." The fruits of a life's labor, withered on the vine.
WEDEMAN: This is what happened to many of the towns and villages caught in the frontlines in this war. They were totally destroyed.
Up the road, residents unload relief supplies trucked into the island of Kozacha Lopan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WEDEMAN (voice-over): Mayor Viaschaslav Zadorenko (ph) is back in his office after months away. He says these armbands were handed out to the workers in the local Russian-installed administration. Food provided to collaborators and newspapers.
About 100 people were collaborators, he tells me. When the Russians left, most left with them.
Alexander (ph) from the mayor's office shows us where town residents were brought for interrogation and torture in a dark basement, as many as 30 people to a cell.
Prisoners, he says, were seated in this chair and subjected to electric shocks. Vadim (ph) spent a few days there. He recalls his interrogators beat him first, then asked questions.
"They beat me on my back, my head, then shoved me on the floor and kicked me," he says. Then they gave me a cigarette and started the interrogation. They asked me if I was pro-Ukrainian. 'I'm Ukrainian,' I said. 'Of course I'm pro-Ukrainian!'"
He was released, but his son Vladimir (ph) was taken by the Russians. He's still missing.
Vitaly (ph) draws water from the neighborhood well. He recalls when Russian soldiers asked if he and his wife had any Nazis at home.
"This is a normal village," he chuckles in the retelling. "We're farmers and workers."
Kozacha Lopan is the last stop on the train line before the Russian border. Soldiers took over the railway station.
WEDEMAN: These are all letters and pictures sent by Russian schoolchildren to the soldiers here at the railway station. Things like this. Pictures.
[00:35:07]
And here's a letter from Alexander in the fifth grade, who says, "You are heroes. Thank you for guaranteeing our safe future." WEDEMAN (voice-over): Misguided, discarded messages of support for a
disastrous war.
Ben Wedeman, CNN, Kozacha Lopan, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: In the coming hours, the British finance minister will deliver the government's much-anticipated mini budget. Major tax cuts are expected, in line with Prime Minister Liz Truss's promises as part of her campaign for the leadership of the Conservative Party.
This comes as the Bank of England hiked interest rates by half a percentage point on Thursday. Norway also raised rates by the same amount. Switzerland increased rates a more aggressive three-quarters of a percentage point.
And surging energy costs in the U.K. could soon see many households make a difficult choice. Either heat or eat.
CNN's Isa Soares spoke with one mother struggling to make ends meet.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BECKA, MOTHER: It's become so stressful, I can't sort of cope with it. So I've just been sort of burying my head in the sand and just trying to do day by day by day.
ISA SOARES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Becka is that the breaking point. Months into a growing cost of living crisis that is only expected to get worse, she's struggling with mounting costs.
BECKA: Now I go shopping with my phone out and everything that goes in, I add it up. And then I have to think. And then we stop putting it to a certain amount and then we've got what we need or put stuff back.
SOARES: How does that make you feel?
BECKA: Almost like a bit of a failure, right?
SOARES (voice-over): A burden no parent should ever feel. But as a single parent, Becka tells me she's doing her best for her nine-year- old daughter.
Juggling five jobs, keeping budgets on track. Yet, still struggling to put food on the table.
BECKA: I used to plan meals every week, because we could do that. But now, I'm not doing it, because who knows what I can afford. You know?
SOARES (voice-over): For families like Becka's, this month has meant even more spending. Kids are back at school, and parents have tough decisions to make.
BECKA: For the shirts, and for the summer dresses, I bought them, like, size 12, you know, ridiculously -- like as high up as I could think I could manage. She doesn't wear shoes, because it's more cost- effective if I just buy her boots. Then, she can be dry in the winter and just, whatever, sweat it out in the summer.
SOARES (voice-over): It's a dilemma that is felt across the U.K., including here in London, where one head teacher tells me families have already started asking the school for support.
EMYR FAIRBURN, HEAD TEACHER, KING'S CROSS ACADEMY: And really, what can they do when bills are going to go up so much? How are they going to afford for food? And that's what the parents are asking us. And the impact on children's learning could be as great as it was during the pandemic during lockdown.
SOARES (voice-over): There's no escaping the worst financial squeeze in 60 years. But the poorest will bear the brunt of this crisis.
BECKA: We're down to our last thing of pesto.
SOARES (voice-over): The hunger, hardship, the mental anguish, and the stigma of poverty.
BECKA: It's really shocking how difficult it is, just to have the very basics. I just want to be able to eat real food, heat my house, and wear good clothes. That's what I want to have, you know?
SOARES (voice-over): Isa Soares, CNN, Norfolk, England.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Japan has intervened to prop up the value of the yen for the first time in 24 years. It took action in the foreign exchange market Thursday after the yen fell past the 145 mark against the U.S. dollar, following the banks of Japan's decision to keep interest rates super low.
The yen has lost over 20 percent of its value against the dollar so far this year.
Japan is also relaxing strict COVID-19 border patrols in the hope of increasing tourism. So beginning next month international tourists will not need a visa. And the daily number of tourists allowed into the country, a cap on that will be scrapped.
Still to come, they were forcefully evicted from their land during colonial rule, and now Kenyans have filed a case around the British government, demanding justice. We'll have that story in a moment.
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VAUSE: In Kenya, legal action is underway against what many have called colonial era abuse. He said their land was taken from them by the crown. And now they're taking the British government to court.
Here's CNN's David McKenzie.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMES BEE (ph), KENYAN: On this land was --
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): James B. shows the legacy of the past.
BEE (ph): That is part of this property.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Borders what was once their land. Some of the most fertile in Kenya, now a lucrative tea mecca. It was taken from them, in the name of the British crown.
It's a colonial area eviction, that led to generations of struggle for the Kipsigis in Kenya and for Bee's (ph) family.
BEE (ph): I am very bitter, because the load I carried as the head son is what my father couldn't carry. That is why, as we are here, the load that I took --
MCKENZIE (voice-over): In Kenya, and across their empire, British colonial authorities ruled with an iron fist, displacing local communities for white settlers; crushing dissent. It's a shameful history for modern Britain and its royal family.
BEE (ph): The British should compensate us. They should bring us our land.
TEMBEKA NGCUKAITOBI, SENIOR ADVOCATE, LAND RIGHTS AUTHOR: What the British did in Africa were crimes against humanity.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): South African advocate and author Tembeka Ncukaitobi says there's a growing movement in Africa to seek justice and compensation from Britain.
NGCUKAITOBI: Restitution lies at the heart of what Africans can do, in order to confront the legacy of British imperialism.
MCKENZIE: And what responsibility do the royals have for that?
NGCUKAITOBI: The royals have been at the heart of conquest of Africa. They have been central to the conquest of Africa.
QUEEN ELIZABETH II, UNITED KINGDOM: I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and to the service of our great imperial family, to which we all belong.
MCKENZIE (voice-over): Imperial expansion came before Queen Elizabeth. During her long reign, she presided over the dissolution of the empire. But she never publicly acknowledged her family's role in its brutality. And it didn't go unnoticed.
NGCUKAITOBI: A lot of people don't appreciate the impact of Queen Elizabeth II, because far from the sort of benign queen that she has been projected to have been, what she was able to do was to put a soft glove over the iron fist of imperialism, to give imperialism an acceptable face.
"What happened was a sin committed by the past kings and queens and the royal family," says 83-year-old Elizabeth Roteach (ph), who says her family was pushed off her land. And a sin like that follows through the generations.
She says she mourns the queens passing, but once an apology and compensation from King Charles.
MCKENZIE: The Kipsigis have now lodged a claim that the European Court of Human Rights, but their attempts to reach out to individual members of the royal family have gone unanswered.
Some ten years ago, another group of Kenyans received compensation and an apology of sorts from the British government, but activists say it isn't nearly enough. And they expect calls for reparations to grow even louder.
David McKenzie, CNN, Johannesburg.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. WORLD SPORT is up next, and then Michael Holmes takes over at the top of the hour. See you next week.
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