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Family of Detained American Raises Concerns About His Whereabouts; Ukrainian Residents Learn to Live with Shortages of Power and Water; Royal Couple's Trip Overshadowed by Racism Controversy; All-Female Team of Referees to Make History at the World Cup. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired December 01, 2022 - 10:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[10:31:55]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: The family of Paul Whelan, an American detained in Russia says they haven't heard from him for a week and they are now growing increasingly worried about his safety.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: The penal colony -- yes, Russia has those -- where Whelan is being held claims he was actually moved to a prison hospital. Whelan's brother David tells CNN he just doesn't believe that.

Kylie Atwood, she is at the State Department this morning.

I understand David is telling us that his parents alerted the U.S. embassy. Does the U.S. State Department know exactly where he is?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, the secretary of State has said that the U.S. embassy is trying to do everything that they can to figure out the details as to where Paul Whelan is right now.

As you said, the family has been told that Paul Whelan was transferred to a prison hospital, but they don't actually have confirmation of that because they haven't talked to Paul Whelan since that alleged transfer has happened. And so that is why the family is concerned about the legitimacy of that -- excuse me, Jim.

And the days that Paul Whelan has missed calling home include notably Thanksgiving and his father's birthday, and that's highly abnormal because Paul Whelan normally talks to his family pretty much on a daily basis.

Listen to what David Whelan said on CNN about his concerns just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID WHELAN, BROTHER OF PAUL WHELAN: He was able to call our parents on the 17th, on the 18th and so on until the 23rd, and never mentioned that he'd been moved, never mentioned having a health issue. So I think there is something else going on here and I think it is up to the Russian government to show that Paul is where he's supposed to be which is unfortunately in the labor colony until he is freed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ATWOOD: Now of course this comes as Brittney Griner, another American wrongfully detained in Russia, her whereabouts is also a little bit unclear. The Russians have told her legal team that she has been transferred to a penal colony but they haven't actually told that to U.S. officials. So U.S. officials are concerned about the lack of information that they are now receiving on both of these cases -- guys.

SCIUTTO: Such slow progress. Kylie Atwood, at the State Department, thanks so much.

GOLODRYGA: Well, another Ukrainian city left in the cold and dark as winter approaches. A local official says recently liberated Kherson is without electricity after heavy Russian shelling.

SCIUTTO: In the capital where rotating power outages have now become the norm, the city has set up warming stations for people to get warm in the winter, charging stations as well. The mayor of Kyiv says he will not let Vladimir Putin steal Christmas. The city is planning to install a symbolic tree of invincibility. That tree is going to run on a generator.

Joining us live now from the capital Kyiv, Tymofiy Mylovanov. He's president at the Kyiv School of Economics, also an adviser to the Zelenskyy administration.

Good to have you on, Timothy. Thanks so much.

TYMOFIY MYLOVANOV, PRESIDENT, KYIV SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: As you know, Russia's intention with these attacks, bombing, killing civilians, but also now taking away their power, their heat.

[10:35:05]

They're deliberate. They want to break the will of the Ukrainian people given Russian losses on the battlefield. Do you sense that's working?

MYLOVANOV: No, I don't. I think it's actually having the opposite effect. But it's not surprising to me but what I see is that people are getting together and solving problems. Those warming centers, for example, one is across our university and we're opening one for academics which we're going to open that everyone who is a student or a professor can come and just live. You know, we bought sleeping bags, we have generators, we have independent electricity, and heating stations.

And also we're helping, you know, to set up or equip a center across from our street so that people who are not academics can also -- we'll be OK, but let me tell you, it's no fun.

GOLODRYGA: And it's pretty evident as we're looking at students there, your students, who are having to study and prepare for final exams in bomb shelters and have little electricity and have to worry about so much as students around the world do. And then on top of that, a war to live through that.

I'm curious to get your response to what we just heard this morning from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov when asked about Russia deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure which, as you know, is a war crime. This was his response. He didn't even pretend that that wasn't there their intention. He said, "We were bombing Nazis in Stalingrad, too."

We heard this accusation of Russia calling Ukrainians Nazis even leading up to the war. I'm just curious how you respond to that and how your students feel about it?

MYLOVANOV: You know, I have a colleague and his sister is in occupied territory, and earlier this week Russian troops came to the village and said they all will be deported to some camp in the middle of Russia and they have to pack their valuables and their personal items and move. And, you know, who is Nazis here? That's my response.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I mean, and U.S. intelligence has catalogued the existence of these so-called filtration camps, you could call them concentration camp as well.

You, Professor, have a remarkable view of how people are managing to survive and stand up to this campaign of airstrikes and missile strikes. I'm sure folks at home here in America would like to hear some of those stories. How do people manage?

MYLOVANOV: Well, people get together. And I think it's really in the morale. It's like, you know, I have these ups and downs. There's an attack and I'm at home and electricity is not there, and toilets are not working, and drinking water. You know, and I get -- you know, I get overwhelmed. Then I go to the university and I see everyone is coming together, people are helping each other, you know, sharing stuff. Picking up each -- you know, like who doesn't have cars, they bring them.

You know, they even have a little bit of firewood and things. You know, humans have lived through much -- in much worse conditions for most of the history. So we can get through this. I think it is important to love each other. And if we are open to each other, I think we'll get through this. And I think this is what's different here in Ukraine, because I also lived through the '90s when the Soviet Union collapsed. I just finished school, high school at that time. And let me tell you, it was tougher then because people were not as open, as warm, and as loving to each other.

GOLODRYGA: It's so heartwarming. I don't know how else to describe it. But to hear you say these words that people just have to love each other, I'm just curious how your students are doing. They don't have to look far to ask their parents, their grandparents what they lived through and how they survived. But how are your students doing right now? MYLOVANOV: Yes. Actually we just realized that perhaps us, well, you

know, our parents are the only generation who have lived in Ukraine without a war or major, you know, issues with Russia, something like that. A lot more. But how are students? You know, they need some sense of normalcy. And recently a student left a message on the white board in a shelter saying that I'm so happy I studied here because, you know, it is -- the only thing which keeps my life together, this routine classes, of exams, of problems, of (INAUDIBLE) hours, of instructors teaching them.

And we have a system, when there is an air attack, a missile attack, it takes seven minutes for all our students, all our classes to get relocated to the shelters and they continue to study.

SCIUTTO: Wow. Hard enough to do those scams in normal times, to do it given all that you and your students are going through, that's remarkable.

Well, Tymofiy Mylovanov, please send our best to your students. Let them know we're watching and we're doing our best to cover this story.

[10:40:08]

MYLOVANOV: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: Well, internet users in China could soon be punished liking posts the government considers harmful or illegal. The new rules take effect on December 15th and are in response to recent protests against harsh COVID restrictions. Health officials do seem to be taking some steps to ease some of those COVID rules include loosening the quarantine and testing requirements in several major cities.

But the Chinese government has still not made any statements to suggest that they're shifting away from the larger Zero COVID policy. Thousands of buildings and residential communities across 32 cities in China are still considered high risk and remain under lockdown.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Amazing to see the police response to those otherwise peaceful protest.

Well, back here in the U.S. the prince and princess of Wales, William and Catherine, they're here for their first visit in years but a racism controversy back at Buckingham Palace causing some problems for the trip. Plus they did have a bit of an awkward moment at an NBA game last night. We'll have more coming up.

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[10:45:45]

SCIUTTO: Well, the prince and princess of Wales are here in the U.S. Their first overseas trip since the death of Queen Elizabeth. Their busy schedule included a Boston Celtics game last night, this against the Miami Heat in downtown Boston, where there was a bit of a mixed reaction when the pair were announced on the big screen.

(CROWD CHANTING "USA")

GOLODRYGA: CNN royal correspondent Max Foster joins us from outside Boston with more.

So, Max, the crowd chanting USA. Nothing controversial about that on a normal day. But given who they saw up on the big screen, you saw the prince handle it well with a big smile. The princess maybe not so much. Tell us what is behind that response?

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I was there. I arrived just after that happened. I did ask, you know, people talking about it when I got there and I did ask around a bit. And I think it was a really a reference to the Tea Party, you know, American independence, very prominent English people there in the crowd.

It wasn't so much personal from the people I spoke to. And so it's just another sort of element really of this trip, which isn't really working in the couple's favor. There was a lot of rain when they arrived. We've had this race controversy back home in the U.K. Today we've got Meghan and Harry releasing a trailer for their new Netflix documentary.

A lot of distractions from what they're actually trying to focus on which is this big event on Friday, which is the Earthshot Prize, about finding solutions to climate change and the climate crisis. But certainly it's getting huge amounts of publicity for an event here in the big crowds gathering here as well.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I did note the timing of that release of the trailer for the Harry and Meghan Netflix special. But I wonder, so given all of that, events back home, you had a little -- not the warmest welcome at an NBA game, but also that. I mean, are they still enjoying the trip? What can you tell? What are you hearing?

FOSTER: I think there's some frustration that there are so many distractions and the big one obviously is this race row back in the U.K. A black guest at a Buckingham Palace reception basically being grilled about where she's from. She kept on repeating that she was from the U.K. and they kept on asking what part of Africa she was from, for example. And that's really blown up in the U.K. And that senior palace aide has stepped aside.

But again, the person at the center of this was back on BBC today saying that she felt that it was abuse. She felt that she was being interrogated by this senior member of the palace staff. So that's a very frustrating development really back home in Buckingham Palace but also here for the royals traveling.

SCIUTTO: Yes. A member of the staff had some history going back to Queen Elizabeth, I believe.

Max Foster, good to have you on the trip. Thanks so much.

GOLODRYGA: Well, there will be history today at the World Cup and it won't involve any of the players. When the first all-female referee team will take the field for the first time ever in the men's tournament.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:53:43]

GOLODRYGA: Well, at the World Cup today's match between Germany and Costa Rica features a first. An all-woman team of referees. French female referee Stephanie Frappart making history as the first woman to referee a men's World Cup match. Frappart will be joined by assistants Neuza Back from Brazil and Karen Diaz from Mexico in their match group.

SCIUTTO: Quite a moment. CNN sports anchor Amanda Davies, she's live in Doha still with the assignment I'm most jealous about.

Amanda, tell us what the reaction there has been like to this historic refereeing team.

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: You should come and join us. I'll tell you, a seriously big weekend in store, isn't it?

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DAVIES: But this is a huge moment. I have to say, long, long overdue for Stephanie Frappart. But she is used to leading the way as a female referee in the men's game. She was the first female referee to take charge of a top flight match in League and in France the first female referee to take charge of a Men's UEFA Champion's League encounter.

I have to say I've been fortunate enough to speak to her a couple of times over the years. She's very calm, very understated, and as far as she's concerned, she will not want to be the one writing the headlines.

[10:55:05]

She'll very much wanted the focus to be on the football. She's very aware of this moment and what it means for not only female referees in the future but also for women in this region and that's the moment that she wants to be embraced. But she's had the backing of the Costa Rican boss Lewis Fernando Suarez. He says it's a very positive step in a very sexist sport. That is certainly a conversation for another time.

But what a match she has to look after. It is four-time champions Germany up against Costa Rica. Germany knowing they have to win if they want this World Cup to continue to avoid the embarrassment that they faced four years ago in 2018 going out at the group stage. That one of the later games. The games currently in progress, it's Morocco who looks set to be going through to the last 16 for the first time since 1986. They're 2-1 up against Canada. Still goalless in the other game between Croatia and Belgium. So Belgium's golden generation might well be heading home.

SCIUTTO: Yes. I'm rooting for Morocco on this one. Love to see them go through. Amanda Davies in Doha, thanks so much.

GOLODRYGA: And thank you all for joining us today. I'm Bianna Golodryga. Don't forget, Jim, I know you won't, the big game, Saturday. Team USA and Netherlands.

SCIUTTO: Yes. I will not forget. I'll be watching, I hope a lot of you will be as well. I'm Jim Sciutto. "AT THIS HOUR" with Kate Bolduan starts right after a short break.

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[11:00:00]