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Officials Give Update On Mass Shooting In Dadeville, Alabama; Airman Charged With Leaking Documents; RFK Jr.'s Family Not Thrilled About 2024 White House Bid; Workers Earning Higher Wages Still Struggling with Inflation; Ukrainians Fleeing To Russia Fear Persecution If They Return Home; Longtime Running Show Ends Historic Broadway Run. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired April 16, 2023 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:37]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington and at any moment we are expecting a news briefing from law enforcement officials in Dadeville, Alabama, the site of last night's horrifying mass shooting. We are hoping to learn more about a suspect or a possible motive in that shooting rampage in this tiny Alabama town.

This is a look at a vigil that's about to get underway at any moment. These are live pictures that you're looking at right now of this vigil that is about to take place in memory of the children, teenagers, many of them who were lost in this mass shooting.

Here's what we know right now about this tragedy. Four people are confirmed dead. A spokeswoman for one local hospital says 15 teenagers suffered gunshot wounds and were treated. Another hospital says it received multiple patients. The attack apparently happened at a Sweet 16 birthday party in this community of 3,000 people. One of those killed, the older brother of the girl celebrating her 16th birthday. There you see him right there. A picture of him smiling.

Philstavious Dowdell was days away from graduating and going to Jacksonville State University on a football scholarship, we're told by folks there in Alabama.

CNN's Isabel Rosales joins us live from Dadeville.

Isabel, it is just heartbreaking when you look at the picture of that young man who was lost and we know that there are three others and we'll be seeing their pictures I'm sure in, you know, in due time. There's a picture of him again. It's just absolutely heartbreaking, and it's happened again, this time in Alabama.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, this community is shocked. It is a community of 3,000 people. Teeny tiny. A lot of these people go to church together. I can hear the church bells right now going off. They eat together. So many people we spoke with in this community know exactly who has passed in this building behind me, a dance venue that was being used for a Sweet 16th birthday party where four people were killed. And I spoke with Michael Taylor, the assistant football coach over a

Dadeville High School, and he personally knew Phil Dowdell and has known him since he was 9 years old, calls him a freak athlete, said that he was so good at any sport that he touched. He was blessed by God is how he described it. Track, football, basketball. And as you mentioned --

ACOSTA: We have to go to this press conference right now in Alabama about the mass shooting. Let's go to it now.

SGT. JEREMY BURKETT, ALABAMA LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCY: Before I get into that, I'm going to reiterate exactly what Mike just said, what the district attorney just shared with everybody. Thank you so much for your support and your continued patience as well as the community. There has been an overwhelming show of support from the community, for us in law enforcement, and if it's not for what you're doing, for the information that's being provided right now and the support that you're showing us, we would not be able to do our job. So we're extremely grateful and thankful for that.

As it relates to the fatalities from the event from the day, there are still four lives lost. Four lives were lost in the tragic event that occurred here in Dadeville. As far as the injuries, there are 28 individuals that were injured during the course of the incident. That's 28 individuals injured during the course of the incident. Now some of those injuries are critical. They are in critical condition.

And that's why it's so important that we absolutely need everyone to continue to pray for those individuals to allow them to recover from what they're enduring as well as their families. That's why that's so important, OK. Now please understand when we classify an injury, it could be, as I said, something extremely critical or serious or it could be something as simple as they needed medical treatment, OK?

So that is a wide variety of injuries that were sustained. But please understand this is also a very fluid situation. We have been getting continuous updates throughout the day and we are absolutely trying to confirm and understand everyone that was in the venue there near the 200 Block last night.

[18:05:08]

We're going through that process right now. We're going through in a very methodical way. We're not going to rush. We're not going to rush to failure. We're going to do exactly what we need to do to ensure justice is brought to bear for those families. And I also want to just share and reiterate, we've got to have information from the community. So if you are at home right now or you know somebody that has any information about what occurred last night, I cannot stress this enough, every how mad you think it is, we absolutely need you to share it.

So, again, please reach out to the Alabama law enforcement agencies, state bureau of investigation. That at 1-800 number is 1-800-3928011. 1-800-3928011, or you can go online, submit it there. SBI.investigations at ALEA.gov. That's SBI.investigations at ALEA.gov. Also Central Alabama Crimestoppers has offered a reward for any of the information. So please contact them as well. That's Central Alabama Crimestoppers. That number is 1-833-AL1-STOP. S-T-O-P. That's 1-833- AL1-STOP.

Again, I'll make all of that information available in a press release to everyone as soon as this is over with. But I also wanted to just share one last thing before we get ready to conclude. How thankful I am to all of our local, state, and federal partners. We are extremely fortunate in the state of Alabama to have an amazing relationship and not with just the law enforcement. There have been first responders, our paramedics, the firefighters, that this community has just truly showed overwhelming support.

There's a vigil going on right now for the families and those that lost. This is the time, again I'll agree with the district attorney, there's just no words to express what some of the families are having to try to now understand and cope with, so we just ask each of you continue to be patient with us. Please, please be patient with us as we go through this process, but we're absolutely doing everything we can and all available resources are being made available.

I will not be taking any questions at this time.

ACOSTA: All right. That was the Alabama law enforcement officials. They're giving us a press conference on the latest there in Alabama stemming from that mass shooting that took place at that birthday party last night. Updated numbers from the sergeant there. You heard just a few moments ago.

Four dead 28 injured. He went on to say there to reporters just a few moments ago that several of those injured appear to be in critical condition. He was asking for people in the community there to pray because it sounds like it's a very serious situation for those critically injured in the hospital as we speak.

Let's bring back in CNN's Isabel Rosales on the scene in Dadeville. Also with us. Juliette Kayyem, CNN national security analyst and former Department of Homeland Security official.

Isabel, just quickly to you. It didn't sound like we got much information about how this happened, how it went down, what the motive was. It sounds like they're still searching for those answers or they're not prepared to give them to us at this point.

ROSALES: Jim, yes, the details still seem very sparse, and that's been part of the frustration that I've heard from many of the members here in the community wanting to get more answers from law enforcement, so frustrated by how slowly that is coming. We know that's still four people have been killed in the shooting. The newest bit of detail is that they finally have put a number on how many have been injured. 28 people hurt in the shooting, some critical.

We know from our reporting earlier in the day from the Lake Martin Community Hospital that they have five people there that are in critical condition. They're asking for patience. That is what the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency is asking for, saying that this is a fluid situation, saying that they are not in a rush because they must ensure justice and that this will be a methodical process.

They're also asking for anyone who has information to give ALEA a call, and that number they gave was 1-800-3928011, 1-800-3928011 -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Isabel Rosales, thank you.

And Juliette, let me go to you. Just as we're going to you, Juliette, I want to tell our viewers we're looking at live images from a vigil that is taking place in Dadeville, Alabama, in memory of the victims who were lost there in that mass shooting.

[18:10:05]

And, of course, people are praying for the other victims, some 28, apparently, who were shot or injured during that mass shooting.

Juliette, let me go to you. I mean, this is just a reminder that these mass shootings can happen anywhere. They can happen in rural communities like Dadeville, Alabama. They can happen in the inner city. They can happen in suburban settings. There's just no place in America that is safe from this kind of carnage.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Right. That's exactly right. So according to the data I just looked at, so we are now at this stage where there are more mass shootings than there are days in 2023. So this would mark 147th mass shooting, which we define as four or more victims, not including the shooter, so there's a range of other things that aren't being captured in that number.

So just a little bit of context. Dadeville, obviously, as you said, a rural community, not more than about 3,000 identified citizens of Dadeville. You saw therefore the state come in because a lot, you know, essentially there's no police department of any size normally that could handle this. So ALEA will take the lead, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, and I think they were preparing us that the five who are severely injured are so critical that some of them may not make it.

So you have a major event, a Sweet 16. Anyone with kids knows this is not right. But was it just not right in terms of kids celebrating on a Saturday night and that's what they were. They were kids.

From the press conference, just two takeaways. One is I actually thought that for what they know that it was a kind of press conference you would want to hear in terms of both collaboration with the local and the federal. We know the White House's at least been briefed, but also seeking the community's help. I think that that is just clear that they either suspect who it is, but they can't say yet, and that's what their focus is going to be at this stage is finding who the perpetrator is.

And then the second thing just to remind people, you know, in the movies these things settle, you know, in a day. If someone ran or fled, even if they know who it is, they might have had some time to get away. So we'll wait and see for more information about who the perpetrator is, the killer, I should say.

ACOSTA: Yes, and Juliette, I mean, you mentioned teenagers. I mean anybody who has a teenager or has teenagers, I mean, your heart is just broken tonight and thinking about the young man who died, he was apparently going to be heading off to college on a sports scholarship. There he is right there, Phil Dowdell. Just, you know, beautiful young man and his life was just cut short needlessly because of this.

KAYYEM: Yes.

ACOSTA: Here's some video of him playing football right here. And this is from back in 2020. And you know this is why his friends were saying he was such a gifted athlete. This coming from our affiliate there in Alabama.

I mean, Juliette. When you talk to teenagers, and I know you said you have teenagers, I have teenagers. When you talk to -- this is what they're afraid of. They are afraid of this in this country right now. They're afraid to go to the movies. They're afraid to go to the mall. They're afraid to do stuff with other kids because they might get shot and killed in this country. That's what it's like to be a teenager in America right now.

KAYYEM: Yes. And we call them -- yes. I think you and I and whatever age we are don't really quite get or it's hard to imagine the sense that teenagers have of the possibility that they would be killed by gun violence wherever they're from, urban areas, rural, blue states, red states. They call this generation lockdown. It's the kids that are going through junior high and high school having, you know, now being too well-versed on what it means to be -- to have these lockdown drills and sometimes as we know they are not drills.

This is a -- I should say this is a voting bloc that these are kids that focus on guns and it's not like, you know, no guns and all guns. These are sophisticated kids who know what it's like to live in a society in which their vulnerabilities are not taken into account. So it's not too early to at least discuss, you know, here we are in a very permissive gun state. It actually just signed, the governor just signed an open carry law permit lists, open carry law, so you cannot argue that you know that, you know, we just need to put more guns out there.

These are happening in places where there's lots of guns, when there's places include states where there's fewer guns. You know, we're certainly should be done gaming the system and just sort of recognize what we're seeing. I have to say about the gun, 28 injuries and four dead victims at this stage.

[18:15:06]

That's -- I don't know what kind of weapon and we don't know yet what kind of weapons, but that's a lot of bullets and in terms of that night, and we're only hearing about one person, so we'll figure out what the gun is. But regardless, that's someone who wanted to meaningfully kill. ACOSTA: You're absolutely right about that. And you know you mentioned

lockdown drills, there's not much you can do in terms of a lockdown drill when you're at a Sweet 16 birthday party and somebody starts shooting.

KAYYEM: Yes. That's exactly right.

ACOSTA: There's no preparation for that.

KAYYEM: I mean, yes.

ACOSTA: Yes. Juliette Kayyem, thank you so much. We'll get back to you.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

ACOSTA: Thanks for your expertise. We appreciate it.

Now to the Pentagon leak investigation. The 21-year-old National Guard airman Jack Teixeira is scheduled to return to court on Wednesday. He's accused under the Espionage Act of leaking dozens of highly classified U.S. documents online. Today, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle expressed grave concern about the circumstances surrounding the leak.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-NY): I have a lot of questions about why were these documents lying around? Why did this particular person have access to them? Where was the custody of the documents? And who are they for? Those are important questions we could ask in the Intelligence Committee so that we can have stronger oversight.

REP. MIKE TURNER (R-OH): The access that he was having to this information should have been cut off. He should have never been having access to this level of classified information that could hurt the United States. He had no reason -- there was no need to know for him of the information that he was accessing and the Department of Defense admits in the affidavit that they had the ability to track him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: CNN national security analyst and former director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, joins us now.

Director Clapper, thanks so much for being with us as always. We appreciate it. Let me ask you. I mean, your sense of where things stand right now with this case. Are you of the mindset that this was a leak that was devastating to U.S. national security or we just don't have enough facts to come to that conclusion? What's your sense of it right now?

JAMES CLAPPER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Jim, anytime you have a breach of security and this sort of classified -- sensitive classified information exposed, it's bad. Unfortunately we have a history of this, and our intelligence system goes back many years. And comparatively, I don't think this one, and at least one I've seen is a serious as prior such revelations, notably when I went through 10 years ago, almost to the month with the Edward Snowden revelations.

But any of them are bad, but I think we should put this in context and not overreact to this unfortunate breach.

ACOSTA: And what makes you say that? Is it because this was a young Air National guardsman who was just on the server with friends trying to show off, that kind of thing? Is it the nature of the intelligence that's been talked about in news reports? What makes you say that?

CLAPPER: The fundamental problem here, and if we could have fixed this, we would have fixed it a long time ago, is a violation of personal trust. We've had egregious violations of personal trust in the past. This is another one. And unfortunately no matter what, how many mouse traps we try to impose on the system administratively, we're going to have future such violations of personal trust. That really is a central issue.

And the problem here is what you're doing is making a subjective judgment about the trustworthiness of every individual that gets a clearance, and your confidence or lack thereof and their ability to keep secrets whether they sign nondisclosure agreements or not. But I think in the largest scheme of things this -- sure it's serious, but not as serious as previous revelations. And I think we need to keep that context.

And some of the suggestions, you know, searching employees on the way out or monitoring social media, you contemplate how many hundreds of employees it would take to monitor, you know, private chatrooms, for example. And that raises the civil rights and privacy question on members of the intelligence community, whether military civilian entitled to any privacy at all or not.

ACOSTA: Yes.

CLAPPER: So I think we need to be -- take a breath here and analyze what really caused this and then maybe work on that. What we need to do a better job is continuous evaluation after the granting of an initial clearance.

ACOSTA: Yes. I was going to say, is there a way to fix this problem? Because you have so many people with access to this kind of information and so many ways to spread it around online, right? There probably isn't a whole heck of a lot you can do about how this has spread around online. And what about the number of people who have access to this information?

CLAPPER: Well, the intelligence, U.S. intelligence community and those whom it serves is a large global enterprise with lots of people in it.

[18:20:08]

And of course, 99.99 percent of them are loyal faithful Americans, who wouldn't dream of exposing classified information. So you have one bad apple, you want to be careful you don't overreact, and overcompensate for that one bad apple. And from some of the rhetoric I've heard I worry about that.

ACOSTA: Well, yesterday we spoke with Democratic Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren. And she said that this kind of activity that this young man is alleged to have been involved in was, quote, "traitorous."

CLAPPER: Well, that's a legal determination. I don't think he intended that, but that's the way it comes across, and I think the charges against him certainly imply that. But that to me is illegal determination. No, there are a classic motivations for this, you know, money, ideology, someone's a compromise or ego. And I think in this case, it was the latter and nothing more. It wasn't an attempt to reveal truth or expose some wrongdoing. It was just purely an ego thing with his little network of private chatroom friends.

ACOSTA: All right, James Clapper. Good to see you. Thanks so much for being with me. We appreciate it.

CLAPPER: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, still ahead. Vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will officially launch his Democratic challenge to President Biden this week, but it turns out he can't count on support from his own family. New CNN reporting just ahead. Plus a curtain call for "Phantom of the Opera." A look at the legacy of Broadway's longest running show as the production takes its final bow tonight.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:25:50]

ACOSTA: In the race to the White House, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is expected to announce a run for president on Wednesday. The former president's nephew, now an outspoken anti-vaccine activist will challenge Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination.

But as CNN's Isaac Dovere reports he will be doing so without the support of the Kennedy family. Kerry Kennedy telling CNN, "I love my brother, but I do not share or endorses opinions on many issues, including the pandemic." Rory Kennedy said, "Due to a wide range of Bobby's positions, I'm supporting President Biden." And Kathleen Kennedy Townsend simply said, "I prefer not to talk about it."

CNN's Isaac Dovere is with us now with his reporting.

Isaac, the Kennedy family obviously they're going to rally around President Biden. I guess that's not a huge surprise, but what are they going to do about this, the Kennedy family? I guess the best they can do is just not say anything.

ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, I mean, this has been going on for years. RFK Jr. moving away from where a lot of the family is on a lot of issues. Lot of dispute within the family of where he is on vaccines. That's been an issue. He's also taking a stance about his father's assassins, Sirhan Sirhan, wanting to see him paroled and maybe saying that he didn't shoot Robert Kennedy. So this is an ongoing thing that has now led to this situation and the family, saying, hey, we love him, we admire his past work, but we don't want anything to do with this.

ACOSTA: And, I mean, obviously there are questions as to whether or not any of this should be taken seriously when it comes to RFK, Jr. running for president at all, but, I mean, what about who's possibly behind this? I mean, there have been some rumblings that there are figures on the far-right, Steve Bannons of the world and so on, who were pushing this to sort of make mischief, which is something that they've been known to do.

DOVERE: Yes, and RFK Jr. on Twitter last week said that there's nothing to that. He's running, he says he's running because of things that he cares about and believes in a lot, such as he does not think Joe Biden is doing the right thing with the war in Ukraine, and those sorts of issues have motivated him, he said. He said in a statement to me that even though there is this personal affection that he has for President Biden and the connections between the families that those issues have led him to make this run, and it seems like he'll be announcing it on Wednesday in Boston.

ACOSTA: And your article, you also report how many Kennedys are actually in the Biden administration, Joe Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, Vicki Kennedy, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, all Biden administration officials. Never mind the fact that Joe Biden just came back from Ireland. That's also goes over well --

DOVERE: Call Ethel Kennedy from Air Force One to wish her a happy 95th birthday.

ACOSTA: That tends to go over well with the Kennedy family. But the ties are strong between the Bidens and the Kennedys.

DOVERE: They are, and it's more than just the people who are in the administration. Joe Biden, you go back, there's a speech that he quotes all the time that JFK gave. It's the moonshot speech from JFK. He quotes a bit of it. He has a bust of RFK on his desk in the Oval Office. He talks about how Robert Kennedy was one of his heroes, getting into politics. Teddy Kennedy, when he got to the Senate was essential in after that car crash that killed Biden's first wife and his daughter in mentoring him through the Senate, but also spending time with him and grieving with him, and going up to Wilmington.

He says that he felt sometimes like Teddy Kennedy's younger brother, and that kind of connection that has been there, deep and emotional for Joe Biden over the years, and that has played itself out into all those people that you showed who are part of the administration.

ACOSTA: It sounds like Camelot is on Joe Biden's side.

DOVERE: Every Kennedy that I spoke with other than RFK Jr. is supporting Joe Biden.

ACOSTA: All right. Isaac, thank you very much. All right. Still ahead a reality check on the state of the U.S.

economy and efforts to bring down inflation. What the Treasury secretary is telling CNN.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:33:55]

ACOSTA: Last month's upheaval in the banking industry took many people by surprise and raised concerns about its impact on the economy. But Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says she doesn't think it has pushed the U.S. off course financially.

In an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria, Yellen talked about whether the government can bring down inflation while maintaining a strong job market.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANET YELLEN, TREASURY SECRETARY: What people call a soft landing is possible. So I do think there's a path to bring down inflation while maintaining what I think all of us would regard as a strong labor market. And the evidence that I'm seeing suggests we are on that path. Now, are there risks? Of course I don't want to downplay the possibility that there are risks here, but I do think that's possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: As government officials talk about ways to reduce inflation, ordinary Americans are struggling to keep up with rising costs, even as wages grow. Many people say their pay rate just can't match our cost of living in this country, and CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has more.

[18:35:07]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (on- camera): Valvin Nicholson works as a cook in a Manhattan skyscraper, but he lives here in Brooklyn in his mom's third floor apartment because he says his wages aren't keeping up with rising costs.

What are we making?

VALVIN NICHOLSON, UNION COOK: I will make sweet chili salmon.

YURKEVICH: How old were you when you had your first job in the kitchen?

NICHOLSON: 1920.

YURKEVICH: Do you remember your first job? How much you made?

NICHOLSON: Eight something? YURKEVICH: How much do you make now per hour.

NICHOLSON: $23 I think.

YURKEVICH: So the $23 that you make an hour now --

NICHOLSON: It's not enough.

YURKEVICH: It's not enough.

NICHOLSON: You got to pay, you know, car notes on insurance is very expensive. Food and everything.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Nicholson, originally from Jamaica, says his coworkers, many who are immigrants, too, feel the same way, especially as inflation sits at 5 percent.

In their new contract with their employer Sodexo, a food service company, union workers are asking for a minimum of $20 an hour for everyone. Food service workers make about $14 an hour on average and low-wage workers and other industries aren't far behind. Women, black and Hispanic workers are disproportionately low-income earners.

(On-camera): Before the pandemic it was high-income earners who typically saw the greatest wage gains compared to low-income earners. But during the pandemic, it was low-wage workers who saw the greatest gains, up 9 percent compared to 4.9 percent for the highest earners and just 2.4 percent for those in the middle.

DANA PETERSON, CHIEF ECONOMIST, THE CONFERENCE BOARD: There are two factors driving increases in wages among low-wage workers. The first is minimum wage increases amongst a number of states and also labor shortages.

YURKEVICH: Does that mean their wages are rising right along with inflation?

PETERSON: Well, no, wages haven't actually been catching up with inflation.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): This is the industry table. One table held each night at four of Michelin star chef John Frazier's restaurants exclusively for restaurant workers. They get 70 percent off the bill.

JON FRASER, CHEF AND OWNER, JF RESTAURANTS: So if I could put myself in the position of dishwasher because I was one.

YURKEVICH (on-camera): Were you?

FRASER: I was one. There's no way that I could have afforded this restaurant on that salary.

YURKEVICH: Do you think that some of your employees should be paid more?

FRASER: Should is a very difficult way to -- YURKEVICH: Should if you could.

FRASER: Should if we could, of course, right, said everyone everywhere all the time.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): But in order to make that happen, the consumer would have to pay more.

FRASER: Are you ready to pay 55 bucks when you go out for a chicken? Probably not.

NICHOLSON: Hopefully by then, when we meet again, we're able to come to agreement.

YURKEVICH: Valvin hopes that comes with a raise. Sodexo posted about $750 million in net profits last fiscal year.

NICHOLSON: I came to the U.S. for American dreams.

YURKEVICH (on-camera): Do you feel like you're living the American dream?

NICHOLSON: No. I mean, not really. Right now it's like you're living from paycheck to paycheck.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: All right. And our thanks to Vanessa Yurkevich for that report.

Still ahead, CNN speaks to Ukrainian refugees now living in Russia. What they say about their lives there and how they're perceived back home.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:42:32]

ACOSTA: Ukrainians looking to flee from war have few options, one of which is going to Russia. But for those who do go east there's no promise that they won't be prosecuted upon returning to Ukraine.

CNN's Scott McLean has more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the chaos of battle in Mariupol in Eastern Ukraine, the civilians caught in the crossfire had few good options. They could either escape to Russia or take their chances as the war intensified. Many of those who fled toward Russia were encouraged to live and work in the Far East, from Rostov, a 4,000 miles train journey to the edge of Siberia and a town just a stone's throw from North Korea.

These are some of the first arrivals stepping off government-chartered trains a year ago.

(On-camera): Why does Russia want those people there?

NATHANIEL RAYMOND, HUMANITARIAN RESEARCH LAB, YALE UNIVERSITY: That's a great question. One is a propaganda benefit, positioning these people as somehow willingly seeking citizenship in Russia. The second benefit is that Russia simply needs bodies. In many parts of the country, they don't have enough citizens to make those municipalities function.

MCLEAN (voice-over): This hotel in the coastal town of Vrangel was where new arrivals were put up at first. CNN reached several of them through a Telegram group chat run by local volunteers, keeping a log of resident requests from baby food and toys to medicine. Anyone dissatisfied with their stay is told sarcastically to take their complaints to Moscow, the Kremlin, Putin.

The Russian government has long been eager to populate its resource rich Far East, and the state has tried several experiments to attract settlers, including those from ex-Soviet states. It now promises fleeing Ukrainians cash, housing assistance, citizenship, and even free land, though two people told CNN they were struggling to get the rent reimbursement they say the government had promised.

Natalia was struggling to find any housing at all, hardly enthused by her new reality.

NATALIA, UKRAINIAN WOMAN IN RUSSIA (through translator): Nothing has changed except the place. But I no longer have a job that I love and a home that I love.

MCLEAN: New arrivals quickly had their Ukrainian passports swapped for Russian ones. Natalia figures she can't go back.

NATALIA (through translator): Because we are criminals there, because those who left for Russia are immediately considered criminals by the Ukrainian authorities. So I'm forbidden to go there.

[18:45:04]

RAYMOND: At this point, the absence of clarity is the biggest problem. There is understandably within Ukraine an absolute outrage against those who are perceived as collaborators. But the fact of the matter is that we are dealing here with a civilian population that was seeking refuge in a time of war.

MCLEAN: Under the terms of Russia's relocation program, the Ukrainians are required to stay for at least three years. One woman, Marina, told CNN that after that we will see. It depends on the job and material well-being. So far, it's not very easy. Another, Valeria, said plainly that her family will stay in Russia, and I don't even want to think about Ukraine.

In a statement, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office told CNN that, "Safety and security of Ukrainian citizens is a major priority and that for many, the only safe passage was through Russia. Of course, they are not considered collaborators. They need to get to a third country and address a local Ukrainian consulate. It will issue them Ukrainian documents to return to Ukraine."

But for those who remain in Russia long term, the future is less clear. By Ukrainian law, people who publicly deny occupation or who call for support for Russian actions are considered collaborators. International law prohibits forcible transfers of people. Russia says more than 5 million Ukrainians have arrived in Russia since the full- scale war began. And while Ukraine says many were forcibly deported, some, like Oksana, said they went willingly.

OKSANA, UKRAINIAN WOMAN IN RUSSIA (through translator): We were saving our own lives.

MCLEAN: Though they had few other options.

Scott McLean, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: All right. Stay with us for an end of an era on Broadway. The final performance of the "Phantom of the Opera" is underway right now. We're live outside the theater up in the Big Apple next.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[18:51:45]

ACOSTA: After tonight, Broadway's longest running show, the classic production, "The Phantom of the Opera" will be no more. Andrew Lloyd Webber's megahit musical is closing after a run of more than 35 years. "Phantom's" final show got underway not quite two hours ago on the stage of Broadway's Majestic Theater, and that's where we find CNN's Polo Sandoval.

Polo, you were right outside the Majestic. There must have been some very excited "Phantom" fans out there from what I understand have been paying some big bucks to get in on some of these last tickets for "Phantom of the Opera."

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was just a lucky few that we're able to actually make it inside for that final show. And Jim, January 1988, it was "The Way You Make Me Feel" from Michael Jackson was topping Billboard and this was opening for the first time. Here we are 35 years later and some close to 14,000 performances later, and about roughly 20 million audience members have been entertained here at the famous Majestic Theater in the heart of Manhattan where "The Phantom of the Opera's" Broadway version.

You do all that math, Jim, about, again, three and a half decades, all the performance, that sonography, the costumes, of course, the iconic score, earning this production I'm told of about seven Tony Awards and plenty of jobs, too, during the course of its production. At least 6500 jobs, not just the actors, but obviously those behind the scenes as well, but also an extremely expensive production. About a million dollars a week to put on the show, and this is why unfortunately the profits just simply couldn't justify that ongoing production.

So it was one of the key factors in making that very difficult decision to finally close up shop and for that curtain to close one more time. It was some just devastating news for fans, including Lexie, who I want you to hear from. She actually had an opportunity to catch the show this past Friday.

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LEXIE LUHRS, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA FAN: There's nothing that can truly ever beat or compared to the phenomenon that is "The Phantom of the Opera." It's a bittersweet tale of love lost, not being understood, but being understood that no matter what, you're not alone and you're loved.

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SANDOVAL: Yes, it's that story that for so many is still relevant today. And so it's certainly going to be interesting to hear from some of the folks as they wrap up today. Again, it's intermission right now for some of the lucky few, some of us who actually got to see it, Jim, this is when my wife and I caught it back in 2018. But don't worry. If you want to see a similar production there will be also in Italy, Prague, South Korea as well, but not on Broadway anymore.

ACOSTA: An end of an era. Polo Sandoval, great stuff out there. I love the mask that one fan had. They really are pulling out all the stops here. The fans are -- for this last night.

SANDOVAL: Right. Diehard fans.

ACOSTA: Absolutely. Got to have them. All right, Polo. Thanks so much. We appreciate it.

In the new CNN Original Series "SEARCHING FOR MEXICO," actress and activist Eva Longoria shows us how people, cultural landscape and history have shaped its diverse cuisine. I sat down with Eva to talk about tonight's new episode on the Nuevo Leon and why it reminds her of home.

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EVA LONGORIA, ACTRESS AND ACTIVIST: We were in Nuevo Leon, which is the north. Nuevo Leon is Monterey and borders Texas. So it was the most familiar to how I grew up. I grew up in Texas, so there's a lot of deer, a lot of venison.

[18:55:02]

A lot of carne asada, barbecue, beef, beef, beef, you know, it was most similar to Texas cuisine. And they had -- we have the flour tortilla in the north. We're not big corn tortilla. We're flour tortilla and my husband who's from Mexico City hates flour tortilla because he thinks it's sacrilegious. He was like that is not -- ACOSTA: You have to have both in the fridge.

LONGORIA: We have to always have both. And what I learned about the flour tortilla that it was during the Spanish inquisition, a lot of Jews entered a different port further north, and there was a crypto Jew community that had to stay hidden within the country that fled Spain and they brought with them unleavened bread with meat.

ACOSTA: Wow.

LONGORIA: And that was where the flour tortilla comes from, and why it's mostly in the north is because of this crypto Jew community that settled in the north, and it was like, wow, that's why we eat flour tortillas like it was such a fascinating.

ACOSTA: Let's talk about carne asada.

LONGORIA: But it is not even like, oh, meat and barbecue. It is like a way of life.

ACOSTA: Yes.

LONGORIA: And I was with these amazing grilling grillers, this griller association that welcomed me to their home and they had, you know, an asada, which is a barbecue, and it was delicious, but also like the art and the flame and how you start the fire and how you season the meat, and when you season the meat, and what to put on after the meat. I mean, it was a lesson in how to how to barbecue.

ACOSTA: It sounds amazing.

LONGORIA: Yes.

ACOSTA: Ain't barbecue like a Nuevo Leon barbecue.

LONGORIA: No. Nuevo Leon is full of cowboys.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: You get hungry just watching it. Be sure to tune in, an all- new episode of "EVA LONGORIA, SEARCHING FOR MEXICO" airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. only on CNN, and we'll be right back.

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