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EPA Halts Hazardous Waste Shipments From East Palestine, Ohio; CIA Confident That China Is Considering Lethal Aid To Russia; Heavy Snow, Rain Pummel Parts Of Southern California. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired February 26, 2023 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:26]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello again, everyone. This is CNN NEWSROOM Sunday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right, we begin with the fallout from that toxic train derailment in Ohio. Residents of East Palestine frustrated, angry, and demanding answers after being exposed to highly dangerous levels of vinyl chloride. The EPA temporarily halting millions of gallons of contaminated waste shipments to Michigan and Texas as the agency reviews disposal plans.

Federal teams now are on the ground and they're checking in on East Palestinian residents door-to-door, passing out flyers with information on getting health assessments and clean water.

But for many in the town, that simply is not good enough. Residents are worried about their own health and their homes. And many are questioning how this even happened after an initial NTSB report said the derailment was 100 percent preventable.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is at the White House for us.

So Priscilla, you know, how is the administration responding to these concerns? And what is next?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, they're saying that they are on the ground, as you mentioned, and they're helping residents navigate the aftermath of this train wreck, which as you noted, there was toxic chemicals that seeped into water, air, and soil and that has led to concerns about long-term health for residents, but also drawn complaints from some residents who say they are already feeling sick.

Now, of course, Federal teams are on the ground. They are going door- to-door to residents. A White House official tells us they're trying to reach hundreds by this week and they're giving them information about how to access health assessments and also how to get testing for water in their drinking wells and also their drinking water.

Now, the Biden administration has been under increasing criticism over the response here primarily that they did not get there soon enough. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg responded to that and noted that this is a priority for President Biden. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG, US SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION: The President has taken a personal interest in this situation from early on, and I wanted to make sure he knew about what I saw on the ground, both in terms of the administration response and that's something that has been really well coordinated.

Where our department comes in really is transportation policy, making sure that in this moment, with so much focus on what happened with this derailment, that we are acting, both to hold Norfolk Southern accountable and to make sure that we do more to prevent all derailments.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Urgency is key here for residents and that has been what has been the primary criticism of Michigan Representative Debbie Dingell, who is a Democrat also said that the EPA should have been there sooner or at least that she hoped that they would be.

Now, President Biden told reporters on Friday that the administration was there within two hours and that again, those teams continue to be on the ground, but as far as whether he plans to visit, there are no plans as of yet -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Priscilla Alvarez at the White House, thanks so much.

All right, turning now to the war in Ukraine. The CIA Director is now saying that the US is confident China is considering giving military aid to Russia in its war with Ukraine. William Burns also saying there is evidence Russia has offered to help Iran with its missile program in exchange for military assistance.

And as the war grinds into its second year now, intense fighting continues in several areas. Ukrainian officials say there was extensive Russian shelling along the front lines in the last 24 hours, particularly in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

CNN's Clarissa Ward is in Ukraine for us.

So Clarissa, what are we learning today about the attacks and this reporting on China considering sending military aid to Russia?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So it's now about a week that we've been hearing these rumblings from the US, first of all, it was from Secretary of State Tony Blinken; now, we're hearing it from the director of the CIA, Bill Burns that China is apparently actively considering giving lethal aid to Russia.

This is all happening at the same time as China has just floated its proposed peace plan which the Ukrainians have already been quick to pooh-pooh because essentially, this proposed peace plan does not actually categorically condemn Russia's violation of Ukraine's sovereign integrity. [15:05:03]

WARD: And so, there is a sort of growing concern on behalf of the Ukrainians that the China issue is something they would really like to be able to better get to grips with in terms of establishing a better relationship, a better rapport, and discouraging the sort of warmth that exists between Xi and Putin, and which may now be translating into actual tangible lethal aid being given.

Meanwhile, on the ground in Ukraine, and particularly in the east, the Ukrainians are up against a very tough fight now in Bakhmut that obviously has been the center of heavy fighting in the Donbas region for quite some time now, but the situation appearing to deteriorate more and more rapidly, with some speculating that it's now just a matter of time, before Ukrainian forces will be forced to give that up as the Russians continue to really push and push hard against those frontlines.

There is a insanely high rate of attrition, Fred, for those Russian forces. They are dying in droves, but the Ukrainians are also experiencing higher casualty rates than at any other time. And so, this has now become a real concern, how to save the lives of as many Ukrainians as possible without ceding ground to the Russians -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Yes, there's just no lead up, and here we are at the one year marker. And in fact, tonight, you have a special report, Clarissa, on CNN that looks at this last year of war in Ukraine and one particular area that you recently went back to visit, so let's show our viewers right now, a bit of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARD (voice over): Indiscriminate and nearly constant shelling by the Russians, has left a trail of death and destruction throughout this region.

The once bustling residential suburb of Saltivka, now a grim memorial to the carnage.

WARD (on camera): The last time we were here in Saltivka, it was just getting smashed by Russian artillery every day. Three hundred thousand people roughly used to live in this area, but since the beginning of the war, it really became the frontline and even now, coming back here, you're just starting to see little hints of life reemerging.

(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE speaking in foreign language.)

WARD (voice over): One resident told me this was her first time back to Saltivka since the bombings. Months later, she is still haunted by the violence.

(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE speaking in foreign language.)

TRANSLATION: ... me want to cry -- lived through it.... won't understand the fear, the dread. And the images can't reflect this. It's very scary. Terrible. I'm speechless, honestly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Wow. It is so eerie. Why Clarissa, did they even feel safe going back to see?

WARD: Well, the Ukrainians were able, Fred, to push Russian forces far enough back from Kharkiv that the situation in that northeastern city is miles better than it was before. It used to be that that area, Saltivka was getting shelled every day. Now, you can hear some shelling in the distance, but it is in the distance.

The issue that you have in Saltivka and areas like it is that there is not very much power, there is not, you know, anything in terms of the way of basic services. People are afraid still to come back to their homes because even though they want to rebuild their lives, there is still lingering trauma, first of all, from everything that was experienced there, but also lingering fear that the Russians are still, even when they've been pushed back to their own border only 20 to 30 miles away, and that they could make a renewed push in that area which we have been seeing in recent weeks.

The Russians trying to push the frontline in a place called Kupiansk, which is part of Kharkiv region, and so this feeding that concern that at this stage, it's difficult to really begin rebuilding.

WHITFIELD: Very frightening, very sad. Clarissa Ward, thank you so much.

Of course, we'll be watching this evening. Be sure to tune in tonight to Clarissa's special report, "The Will to Win: Ukraine at War" airs tonight at eight o'clock.

All right, two Israeli brothers were shot and killed today in the West Bank in what local leaders call an extremely serious terrorist attack. The Israeli Defense Forces say the attacker used their car to ram into the brothers on a busy road before shooting them in what local officials said was point-blank range.

It comes days after a massive Israeli military raid into Nablus, left at least 11 Palestinians dead.

[15:10:10]

WHITFIELD: CNN's Hadas Gold joining me now live from Jerusalem.

Hadas, what more can you tell us?

HADAS GOLD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, we know that this attack happened on a busy route that passes through a Palestinian town that Israeli settlers often use to get to other settlements, and it has been a flashpoint in the past. But from what we understand, it seems as though this attacker who is still on the run, officials have said that they are conducting a manhunt to try to find the attacker or attackers, used their car to ram into these two brothers who are 19 and 21 years old, to ram into their car and then apparently shoot them, in what, as you noted the local official said was point-blank range. Now, they both died on the scene and then the attacker fled.

And this is of course, happening in the context of increasing levels of violence and death that we've been seeing just in the past few weeks here. You noted the military raid just about a week or so before then. There were two attacks, targeting Israelis, killing at least seven people, and then even before that, another deadly Israeli military raid.

But actually, what's interesting is today, what happened just a few hours after that attack was a rare Summit in Akaba, in Jordan with the Jordanians, Israelis, Palestinians, the Americans, Egyptians, all trying to calm the situation, especially before the Ramadan holiday.

Now, out of that meeting, they made some announcements, including saying that they were going to work on sort of joint security commitments with the Israelis and the Palestinians, that the Israelis have committed to essentially not work on settlements in the occupied West Bank for several months, and that the Palestinians won't push any sort of resolutions against the Israelis in the United Nations, and they also agreed to meet again, once again in Egypt before Ramadan.

But then almost as soon as that meeting wrapped, and all of these statements were coming out about what they had agreed on, it seemed as though Israeli officials were negating what they had talked about at this Summit. Benjamin Netanyahu tweeting that: "Construction and regulation in the West Bank would continue according to original planning, there will not be any freeze."

And then Benjamin Netanyahu, keep in mind, leads now the most right- wing government in Israeli history. And one of his Ministers, actually, the Minister of National Security, tweeted out: "What happened in Jordan will stay in Jordan." This is the Minister of National Security, essentially, negating what was publicly announced by both the Israelis, Palestinians, Americans, and then as night is falling, we're hearing of even more violence in the West Bank, settlers and Palestinians clashing. We're hearing of some more injuries and potentially the death of a Palestinian man as a result of those clashes.

So clearly, not a lot of optimism that whatever was agreed upon in Jordan will have an immediate effect on the situation here on the ground -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Hadas Gold, thanks so much.

Coming up: From more than six feet of snow in Los Angeles County to hurricane force winds in the Midwest, millions of Americans are on alert as severe weather makes its way across the country.

And later, inside the CNN exclusive reporting into how a box filled with classified documents ended up in Trump's office months after the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [15:17:28]

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back.

Right now, millions of Americans are bracing for severe weather as a major storm threatens the Central US with tornadoes and hurricane force winds. The storm has already pummeled parts of Southern California with up to five inches of rain and more than six feet of snow.

The resident who shot this video says she hasn't been able to leave her home since Friday. The effects of the storm are also lingering in northern Los Angeles County, where Interstate 5 remains closed today after heavy snow barring portions of the highway.

And to the south on that very same interstate, rising waters flooded the roadway, submerging cars and trapping this driver as he tried to escape. Unbelievable images.

So that same storm that brought all of that snow and rain to California is now headed east.

We've got CNN meteorologist, Britley Ritz standing by with the latest on the conditions. But first, let's go to CNN's Camila Bernal live in Lubec, California where the snow is lingering -- no melting yet, right?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A little bit because the sun is out. Finally, we're back to the sun, what we're used to here in Southern California, but a lot of the accumulation is still here.

We've got about one to two feet of snow in this area alone, as you mentioned; in higher elevation areas, almost six feet, more than six feet of snow in some of the higher areas, so that is a lot of snow and Southern Californians are just not used to this type of weather.

There have been a lot of headaches, a lot of people that have been stranded and unfortunately, we're still waiting for Interstate 5 to open up. This is the highway right behind me. And as you can see, it is still empty.

We've seen some of those snow trucks trying to clear, not just the highway, but you also have to remember that they're trying to clear the on and off ramps, the exits. So there's a lot that goes into play here.

I've seen people who are just waiting with their suitcases, with all their belongings, just waiting for that highway to be open. And so, you have the snow in these areas, but in the LA area closer to the city, you are seeing a lot of rain, a lot of streets that were flooded and just so much wind that we had a lot of power outages as well. At the moment, more than 75,000 people are still without power because of the rain and the winds.

Now, about 40 miles south of where I am in Castaic, California, that's where the ground essentially just gave in and that's where we saw multiple RVs going into the Santa Clara River, and that area, of course, many residents just so worried and also essentially stranded there because they cannot get on the highway even 40 miles south of where I am.

Here is someone from that area who just cannot get out yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARISSA JOHNSON, RV OWNER: I'm actually traveling from Bakersfield and I can't get to work right now because of the snow. The 5 is close going towards Bakersfield, so, I haven't been able to get back and forth to work for a couple of days. And also I'm just kind of afraid we're going to have to evacuate if it gets any worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: And that's the problem that we still have more rain and possibly more snow over the next couple of days here in Southern California, and again, we're just not used to it. So authorities continuing to tell people that they need to be extremely careful if they're going to be driving in this area, the Grapevine for example.

Those are the kinds of things that people need to watch out for over the next couple of days, because more is still coming -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Camila. Thanks so much.

Britley, to you in the Weather Center, what's next with this storm system?

BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's eventually pushing east, Fred, and we're watching it bringing in the threat for severe weather here in the upcoming hours and into the evening.

No, it doesn't look like much right now, but we have that warm moist air sitting in the Central Plains and that's fuel for the storms to fire up, bringing in the threat for severe weather.

Tulsa, Oklahoma just north of Wichita Falls highlighted in red. That's where we're most vulnerable where conditions are a little more conducive for the threat for damaging winds. That's our biggest concern, but tornadoes can't be ruled out either.

And a few long-lived EF2 tornadoes where winds are gusting over a hundred miles per hour are possible. Areas hashed in orange and red where we are dealing with some of the stronger winds here in the upcoming hours especially areas highlighted in red and have 75-plus- mile-per-hour winds are expected.

Watch this line start to bow out. This is six o'clock Eastern Time. See how it bows. That's identifying how strong the winds are. That system pushes into Missouri as we get into early Monday morning to three o'clock in the morning, local time, and then slowly weakening as it moves into the Ohio Valley, but still holding the threat for severe weather, nowhere near as strong as what we are expecting this evening and overnight, but still holding that threat for damaging winds and hail, as well as isolated tornadoes rolling into tomorrow afternoon through the Ohio Valley.

Even without the severe thunderstorms that are expected to bring damaging winds, we still have that wind threat. That's how strong the system is.

We have wind advisories and high wind warnings where even if it's not storming, we can expect winds gusting near 65 miles per hour.

WHITFIELD: Oh my goodness. That is fierce.

RITZ: Yes.

WHITFIELD: All right, thank you so much, ladies. Appreciate it.

Coming up: News outlets including CNN are demanding that they get all the security footage from the January 6 insurrection after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy turned it all over to controversial FOX host, Tucker Carlson.

We'll discuss next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:27:34]

WHITFIELD: The Biden administration is looking to crack down on how prescriptions are handed out. This week, it proposed new rules that will require patients to have an in-person medical evaluation before being prescribed most prescription medications by their doctors.

Under the new DEA rule proposals, patients would still be able to get less addictive medications like antibiotics or birth control via telehealth. Prescriptions for other drugs like those that help with pain or sleep could be prescribed via telehealth, but a patient would need an in-person evaluation before obtaining a refill.

And a group of media companies including CNN have sent a letter to congressional leadership demanding a trove of security footage from the January 6 Capitol riot. The media companies want access to the same footage that new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy recently handed over to controversial FOX host, Tucker Carlson.

The Republican Speaker gave the conservative entertainer about 44,000 hours of police footage from the Capitol insurrection.

David Gergen is a former adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton. He's also a CNN political analyst.

David, good to see you. So what do you make of McCarthy's decision to hand over the footage to Carlson?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good see you, Fredricka.

It is a naked power play by the Republicans, and it is -- I think we've never seen anything like this before because this was a highly produced a series of hearings. They had a film crew in that came in and worked with the Members of

Congress and with their staffs to put that show on a row and that was made available to everybody at the same time, all the media folks.

What we see here, Fredricka is by giving it to Tucker Carlson, of all people, that Tucker has the capacity to produce five-hours of footage or coverage for specials over the next several days that could be very distorting about what has just occurred, and it is a way to weaken the power and the message that came through on January 6, but it is a way that we can think -- and to put out disinformation in a subtle way.

So I think it's extraordinarily -- I've never seen anything like this. Now, I've worked with a variety of administrations working with the press to make sure we gave them a fair shot. I can only imagine how angry they are.

[15:30:14]

WHITFIELD: Yes, well, what is the motivation of the House Speaker doing that? I mean, what is the gain? What is his potential gain?

GERGEN: Yes. Well, House Speaker McCarthy was under enormous pressure from his right flank who insisted that he get these tapes if he could, and do with them as they might wish.

But obviously, to reduce the public support for what the hearings were all about, and what we know about Tucker Carlson is he is cuckoo. He sort of said, it's not very important what happened in the assault on the Capitol, you know, it's been way overplayed. He wants to be different and bring to the air a different -- and his Republican flank wants to bring to the air a different version of reality as a way of distorting the news.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Okay, let me shift now to the classified documents investigation.

You know, it turns out, the prosecutors have interviewed a Trump aide who copied classified materials, you know, found in the box, and made these copies via her phone and downloaded the information onto a laptop.

I mean, you served under multiple Presidents, and I've heard it from lots of people who've worked in the White House and other agencies that it happens sometimes that classified documents or documents do make their way into their possession even after they've left office.

But now, we're talking about -- now, we are talking about where investigators are going to look at intent. And now if you're copying information, and it's the handling of information, not just being in a box, you know, in a place of your residence, but now being stored in a laptop, and where does it go after that? So how does this elevate your concerns now about these documents at the former President's place?

GERGEN: Well, I think it is seeable that this had been sloppily handled. It has been done with too much complacency and you know, inappropriately so. What we are hearing is that there were these documents and the people who had the documents at Mar-a-Lago put them up in the Cloud, and then he took them out of the Cloud and sent them to a couple of political operatives, and then they got farmed out and then eventually it went on to Mar-a-Lago whom hell can tell what happened along the way. We don't know that.

I think the question for the prosecutors and that's the Special Counsel's Office who is pursuing this is, was this done with malicious intent? Was this done with the intent to deceive? If that's the case, then there is a real legal issue and sometimes indictments could follow.

If it's just a question of sloppiness, they may be able to get off.

WHITFIELD: All right, David Gergen, we'll leave it there for now. Good to see you.

GERGEN: Okay, take care.

WHITFIELD: All right, it's time to roll out the red carpet. The SAG Awards begin in just a few hours, but for the first time ever, the show will only be streaming online, a preview next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:37:28]

WHITFIELD: All right, tonight, the SAG Awards are back honoring the best in film and television, and it is often seen as a preview of what's to come for the Oscars. And now the stage is set for the 29th annual event, and this year, it is not without controversy.

CNN's Stephanie Elam has a preview of tonight's big ceremony.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): There's glitz and glamour, but are there viewers?

TV award shows were already in decline before getting crushed by the pandemic.

MATTHEW BELLONI, FOUNDING PARTNER, PUCK: They're not dead. But the days of award shows bringing in twenty, thirty million people, that's over.

ELAM (voice over): Enter streaming and Netflix, which scooped up the Screen Actors Guild Awards this year for its YouTube Channel before jumping to Netflix itself, the main platform next year.

BELLONI: The streaming services are all introducing advertising tiers. They want live programming that can support those ads and Award Shows are live programming.

ELAM (voice over): A Grammy ratings boost this year offers hope for other shows, especially with familiar blockbusters getting nominated from "Elvis" -- BAZ LUHRMANN, DIRECTOR, "ELVIS": He was always about uniting different

kinds of people, different age groups, bringing the difference together.

ELAM (voice over): And "Top Gun: Maverick."

ELAM (on camera): How does it feel to be in a movie that like singlehandedly brought people back to the theater, Jay Ellis?

JAY ELLIS, ACTOR, "TOP GUN: MAVERICK": You know, I just -- you're welcome.

ELAM (voice over): Even award show frontrunner, "Everything, Everywhere All at Once" was a box office success.

The cast is nominated for a SAG Award as is Michelle Yeoh who plays an aging immigrant who visits the alternate lives she could have led.

MICHELLE YEOH, ACTOR, "EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE": People who will sometimes get overwhelmed and sort of sidelined, she is someone that you look at and say, "Come on, you can do this."

ELAM (voice over): The SAG Awards will be the last time this season fans can root for Viola Davis in "The Woman King." She is one of the stars edged out of an Oscar nomination by Andrea Riseborough, who came out of nowhere when a grassroots social media campaign inside Hollywood worked.

Even Kate Blanchette gave her a shout out at the Critics' Choice Awards.

Soon after, came this --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Andrea Riseborough in "To Leslie."

ELAM (voice over): An Oscar nomination for what supporters called a powerful role as an alcoholic in the small film "To Leslie."

The Academy investigated whether lobbying rules were violated.

BELLONI: They did not disqualify her, but they essentially said that they are going to deal with the people who were improperly campaigning individually and we're going to get some new rules after this season.

ELAM (voice over): Too late for "The Woman King," director, Gina Prince-Bythewood would who wrote: "Of course, I'm disappointed. I agreed to speak up on behalf of Black women whose work has been dismissed in the past."

Stephanie Elam, CNN, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[15:40:09]

WHITFIELD: All right, coming up the incredible story of hope and perseverance of a young Ukrainian ballerina who left her home country just one day before Russia's war began.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YEVA HRYTSAK, UKRAINIAN BALLERINA: Leaving was the hardest. Leaving, it was like, you never know when you can come back and you never know when you can see your family again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A teenage ballerina from Ukraine arrived in the US just a day before the Russian invasion. And now, a year later, she has found refuge as a dancer in New York, but the war has also kept her from being with her family and her home is now a warzone.

CNN's Polo Sandoval has the story.

[15:45:16]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This New Jersey dance studio is where Yeva Hrytsak finds refuge from a war raging half a world away. As the Ukrainian ballerina will tell you, keeping her focus on dancing is the only distraction from the fact that her family remains back in her home of Dnipro, Ukraine.

Just over a year into the war and that region continues to come under Russian artillery fire.

Like so many Ukrainians waiting out the war in the US, Yeva says she feels tormented not knowing when she will see her family again. But rather than give in, she gives hope by lacing up her pointe shoes and doing what she says her family would want her to do, just dance.

SANDOVAL (on camera): When you're on the stage, performing, are you thinking about the war?

HRYTSAK: As soon as I'm in ballet, I'm trying to escape this world, so I'm going into -- more into something unrealistic, I would say. So when I'm dancing ballet, I'm just enjoying the moment and I'm imagining that I'm somewhere like fairy tale.

SANDOVAL (voice over): Yeva says she left Ukraine to pursue a ballet career the day before Russia invaded her country. She remembers getting a phone call from her mother a year ago asking her not to return home for her own safety.

HRYTSAK: There was the moment when I realized that I don't know when I can see them.

SANDOVAL (voice over): Yeva captured these images as she eventually journeyed back home just two months ago.

HRYTSAK: I knew that it's not safe. I knew that there is always a risk, but for me, it was very important that I did this stop and I saw with my eyes what's going on in my country. SANDOVAL (voice over) Her city scarred by war was hardly recognizable.

HRYTSAK: The places that I used to have fun and I remember like from my childhood, and then I see this place is destroyed, it is so hard.

SANDOVAL (voice over): What she did recognize, her father's smile as he spotted Yeva through her train window.

HRYTSAK: Leaving was the hardest. Leaving, it was like, you never know when you can come back and you never know when you can see your family again.

SANDOVAL (voice over): Yeva calls New York City home at the moment where she was placed in a ballet academy by former Bolshoi ballerina, Larissa Saveliev. She founded Youth America Grand Prix after defecting from Russia in the early 90s. The organization scouts out rising star dancers offering them scholarships for academies around the world.

When Russian troops advanced in Ukraine, Saveliev have shifted her focus to evacuating dancers out of the warzone.

LARISSA SAVELIEV, BALLET INSTRUCTOR: So we send an e-mail to all of our partner schools with the profile of the kids and say, guys, that's the young dancers and we have to get them out as soon as possible and all the schools was like, "Absolutely."

SANDOVAL (voice over): Saveliev says over the last year, YAGP has helped more than 250 Ukrainian dancers leave their country, 11 including Yeva are continuing their training in the US.

SAVELIEV: We would just try to deal with the situation how best we can, you know. Nobody gets a memo how to place ballet students in the middle of the war, at least, I didn't, you know?

SANDOVAL (voice over): Yeva's hope is that her grace and success on an American stage will help carry her family through another year of Ukraine's conflict.

HRYTSAK: You're just leaving, you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.

SANDOVAL (on camera): Yes, and then you dance.

HRYTSAK: And you just dance and then you just like float in different worlds.

SANDOVAL: Yes, even if for a little while.

HRYTSAK: Exactly.

SANDOVAL (voice over): Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Wow. Beautiful. As the city of New Delhi struggles with the dual challenges of social

unrest and climate change, two brothers are racing to save a casualty of the turbulent times, the Black Kite, a bird of prey essential to their city's ecosystem.

The Oscar nominated HBO documentary film "All That Breathes" tells their moving story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE speaking in foreign language.)

TRANSLATION: When we got our first kite, I'd stay up at night staring at it.

It looked like a furious reptile from another planet.

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE speaking in foreign language.)

TRANSLATION: I've devoted my entire life to this.

It took my glasses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:50:25]

WHITFIELD: Wow, stunning. I mean, it simply makes you slow down.

Joining us right now is Shaunak Sen, the director of the film.

Shaunak, so good to see you, and congratulations for all the accolades.

SHAUNAK SEN, DIRECTOR, "ALL THAT BREATHES": Thank you.

WHITFIELD: I mean, you know, social unrest and climate change are two enormous issues. Why did you choose to examine them through the story of these two brothers trying to heal these birds and save them?

SEN: Well, when we began, I wasn't thinking of these big zoomed out platitudes at all. When we began, we essentially wanted to tell a kind of ecological, emotionally moving and sociopolitical story that ties together this one remarkable singular family, with this one bird, the black kite.

And I was interested in the kind of greenness of the air that surrounds us in the City of Delhi, and through it, the sort of layers of things opened up. The social unrest is the kind of wallpaper of the lights. That's never really the front and center of the film, but a kind of oblique tangential presence.

The main idea was to tell a kind of cinematic philosophical and poetic story about living in these times of climate change, and with this kind of air in these weather conditions through this singular and remarkable work of these two brothers who saved 15,000 black kites, at least in the last 10 odd years.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness, I mean, the name of the film, you know, comes from something one of the brothers says in the film, that there should be no differentiation between all that breathes, and that comment was striking to you and it really did kind of become the centerpiece of the meaning behind this film.

Why was that so important?

SEN: The thing that I was most interested in was that the brothers had a kind of profound way of looking at the world and the way they make you think of the kind of entanglement between human, non-human life or a kind of neighborliness, or kinship between non-human life, especially urban ecology, especially non-human life in the cities is really, really singular, you know, unlike anything that I've read.

And they presented a kind of poetic intervention or a philosophical attitude towards living in these times that was both scientific while at the same time, mobilizing a kind of non-Western way of thinking that I thought was genuinely beautiful.

And this idea of not hierarchies in between, you know, forms of life is not some woo-woo thing that we just say, it is a way that they live, and I felt that giving a glimpse of their life would be special and that's how the title came about.

You don't hierarchize between things that breathe. Life itself is a kind of membership, or a kind of kinship, and their life epitomizes it.

WHITFIELD: I've heard that kind of universal philosophy before that you know, birds really are a barometer of life and if birds cannot survive, I mean, that just might be the demise of all other living things as well.

You know, the eyes of the world are on this film, particularly right now, with the Oscars coming up. Is there kind of a universal message that you want people to grasp here?

SEN: Well, the thing is that, you know, this is not just a sweet film about nice people doing good things. You know, it's a kind of dense meshwork of the ecological, the political and a kind of rich, inner emotional life of the brothers.

When we began the film, our main -- I mean, I would be happy, I would keep telling people that if the audiences exited the theaters and just looked up at the sky, you know, the idea was to kind of enchant the sky, enchant everyday living things in the film, you see a panoply of different kinds of living objects like rats, pigs, snails, cows, and so on.

And there's a kind of profound relationship that they articulate with animals, especially in the city. And if one is just like, you know, one expands the kind of perspective that one usually inhabits and has a more than human interest in a kind of more than human entanglement of life, that would be interesting. The idea is to really enchant the skies, enchant -- birds are usually

like, you know, the tremors at the edges of our vision. And if one just like, is able to make people think bit more about these things that I think it alone is enough for one bird.

WHITFIELD: What a gift. Shaunak Sen, thank you so much, and congratulations again.

SEN: Thank you. Thank you so much.

WHITFIELD: And don't forget the HBO documentary film, "All that Breathes" is now available on HBO and HBO Max.

[15:55:05]

WHITFIELD: At the NAACP Image Awards, Brittney Griner received a standing ovation, there she is, on stage. The WNBA star making a surprise appearance at the ceremony after spending 10 months in a Russian prison.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRITTNEY GRINER, WNBA PLAYER: It feels so good to be here, especially with my beautiful, amazing wife, and with all of y'all here today

[CHEERING AND APPLAUSE]

GRINER: I want to thank -- I want to thank everyone, and let's keep fighting to bring home every American still detained overseas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: On her return to the US, Griner vowed that she would play basketball again and now, she is making that a reality. This week, Griner signed a one year deal with the Phoenix Mercury. The team posted this video to social media showing Griner smiling, looking completely at ease in that photo opportunity with the uniform, the Phoenix Mercury.

All right, thank you so much for being with me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

The CNN NEWSROOM continues with Jim Acosta right after a quick break.

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