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President Trump Addresses World Economic Forum; President Trump Tells Putin to End War in Ukraine; Trump Starts Immigration Crackdown; Red Flag Warning Remains in Los Angeles; Israel Turns Focus on West Bank; Palestinian Journalist Freed from Israeli Jail. Palestinian Journalist Freed After Months In Israel; ICC Seeks Arrest Warrants For Taliban Leaders; Japan's Prisons: Elderly Choose "Life of Crime" Over Lonely Existence. Aired 2-2:45a ET
Aired January 24, 2025 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST: Welcome to all you watching us around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom." U.S. President Donald Trump lays out his economic agenda to the World Economic Forum, and he also hints at how the war between Russia and Ukraine could come to an end.
Firefighters in California battle another massive blaze while thousands of people are under massive evacuation orders.
And why some women in Japan are choosing prison in their old age.
From the White House, the World Economic Forum, Donald Trump is laying out his vision for foreign policy and the global economy. The newly inaugurated president is making it clear the path to better relations with the U.S. is through investment. He says making products here should merit a 15 percent corporate tax rate. Exporting products to the U.S. will get you tariffs.
The president also railed against the European Union saying the bloc treats the U.S. very unfairly. He called on NATO members to spend 5 percent of their gross domestic product on defense. We have more now from CNN's Alayna Treene reporting from the White House.
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Donald Trump returned to the world stage on Thursday when he addressed the World Economic Forum virtually as they gathered in Davos. He walked through a number of topics, but some really notable moments. One was when he said that he wanted all NATO nations to increase their defense spending to five percent of GDP. Currently, that agreement has them paying two percent of GDP for defense spending.
He also said that he wants to very soon meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He argued that Putin should want to make a deal with Ukraine to end the war between their countries. He said he hopes that they can have a meeting soon. And he also argued that interest rates should be lowered both in the
United States and abroad. Of course, Donald Trump does not have that authority as president to change interest rates. That lays with the Federal Reserve. But look, Donald Trump also continued with his very fast clip of signing executive orders with the signing ceremony on Thursday in the Oval Office.
One of those orders included releasing and declassifying some of the files regarding the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. Again, a big campaign promise for Donald Trump that he had talked about repeatedly throughout his time on the trail.
But we also saw Donald Trump defend what a federal judge called on Thursday, something that was blatantly unconstitutional and the judge was referring to Donald Trump's earlier executive order to end birthright citizenship. When we heard Donald Trump signing some of those executive orders in the Oval Office, he said that his team plans to appeal. Alayna Treene, CNN, the White House.
BRUNHUBER: Now Trump's speech in Davos wasn't the first time in recent days that he tried to press Russia to end the fighting in Ukraine. Earlier this week, the U.S. President threatened to slap new tariffs and sanctions on Moscow if it didn't make peace with Kyiv. He also spoke about that in the White House on Thursday. Here he is.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think Russia should want to make a deal. Maybe they want to make a deal. I think from what I hear, Putin would like to see me and we'll meet as soon as we can. I'd meet immediately. Every day we don't meet, soldiers are being killed in a battlefield.
UNKNOWN: You said that Ukraine's ready to make a deal. Did President Zelenskyy tell you that --
TRUMP: Yeah, sure. He's ready to negotiate a deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Trump also said he'll push for lowering oil prices to try to bring the conflict to an end. He seemed to suggest that cheaper oil could hurt the Russian economy enough to perhaps compel Moscow to make peace. Matthew Chance has more from the Russian capital.
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MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Kremlin is stepping up attacks across Ukraine, seizing as much territory as possible ahead of a potential ceasefire in this brutal war. This is the U.S. president speaking to the World Economic Forum in Davos, made an impassioned call for peace.
TRUMP: Our efforts to secure a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine are now hopefully underway. It's so important to get that done. That is an absolute killing field. Millions of soldiers are being killed. Nobody's seen anything like it since World War II. They're laying dead all over the flat fields.
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It's a flat field farmland and there's millions of Russians and millions of Ukrainians. Nobody's seen anything like it since World War II. It's time to end it.
CHANCE (voice-over): The remarks come amid expectations in Moscow of a Trump call with the Russian leader Vladimir Putin. And after Trump's scathing social media post telling Putin to reach a Ukraine deal or face more sanctions, a threat which left the Kremlin unfazed.
We don't see any new elements here, Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov tells reporters in a conference call. In the first iteration of his presidency, Trump was the American president who most often resorted to sanctions. He likes these methods, Peskov adds.
But the Kremlin and the Trump White House have left the door open to a presidential summit to discuss Ukraine's future. Back on the front lines, Russia's special military operation what the Kremlin calls its conflict in Ukraine, continues to take an appalling toll in blood and treasure. An early end to the fighting is something that President Trump himself pointed at, was in the Kremlin's best interests.
I'm going to do Russia, whose economy is failing, and President Putin a very big favor, Trump wrote in his social media post. Publicly the Kremlin leader insists Russia's economic situation is under control, but indicators like soaring inflation and interest rates suggest otherwise.
And if for Trump brokered ceasefire also lets the Kremlin consolidate territorial gains, that may prove a very big favor indeed. Matthew Chance, CNN Moscow.
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BRUNHUBER: Now, contrary to what President Trump said in his speech, millions of soldiers haven't been killed in the conflict. The Pentagon estimated in October that more than 600,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in Ukraine. And in a post in December, President Zelenskyy said 43,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in action and 370,000 wounded, many with light injuries. And CNN can't independently confirm these numbers.
All right, now to President Trump's efforts to end birthright citizenship. A federal judge in Seattle, Washington has issued a temporary restraining order blocking the executive order, calling it blatantly unconstitutional. The 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to all children born on U.S. soil. Trump says he'll appeal the judge's ruling. I spoke earlier with Michael Genovese, president of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MICHAEL GENOVESE, PRESIDENT, GLOBAL POLICY INSTITUTE, LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY: He is testing the limits of his power, pushing the envelope to see if someone will push back. And a Ronald Reagan appointed judge whose a conservative federal judge said as your reports indicated, it was blatantly unconstitutional. But it was a campaign promise so in one way it's read me to his base that he's just tossing them. In another sense, well he must know that it's unconstitutional and it won't pass constitutional muster.
He may be hoping against hope that if it gets to the Supreme Court on appeal where it will go, it may be, just maybe he'll get those five votes out of nine that he needs. This is not over by any means.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, clearly not. So, all right there are the legal fights then there are the political fights, the fight to confirm his picks. Do you think Pete Hegseth gets over the finishing line and what do you think that this process says in terms of just how it's played out so far?
GENOVESE: Well, Trump has been manipulating the process. He's been able to do that because the Republicans control the Senate. There were two defectors against Hegseth today -- Hegseth today. Not enough. And it looks like, you know, as serious as it is to be Secretary of Defense, we're going to have a person who's unserious in that office because the Republicans seem that they are going to bow to their leader and follow his lead, even though -- that this is such -- it's not like a minor or secondary or second level cabinet appointment. This is Secretary of Defense. It's just hard to take him seriously.
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BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, Trump's long-promised immigration crackdown is now underway and with arrests already being executed in places like Boston and Newark, New Jersey, where there are accusations of unlawful detainment. Cities across the country are bracing for more action. CNN's Whitney Wild reports out of Chicago.
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WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With President Trump moving swiftly to deport undocumented immigrants across the country --
(On camera): What does this space mean to you? What does this room mean to you?
UNKNOWN (through translation): Relief is one aspect of it. I feel calm because I'm sheltered.
This bedroom is part home, part hiding place for this woman, whose name we are withholding because she fears deportation.
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A lot of helplessness because I'm nervous, she says, and anxious. I'm afraid of losing this trip I took across the Darien. I'm afraid of losing those dreams of having something in my country because I'm 50 years old, she says. She has been in the U.S. for more than a year. She hopes to make some money here and then go back to Venezuela where her two children and mother stayed. She had planned to find a job this week, but was too afraid to leave this apartment.
I put on makeup today because I had a job interview and it was really like putting on a mask because I'm really devastated, she says.
Fear is spreading as the Trump administration makes clear cities like Chicago, a sanctuary city, are major targets for enforcement. Here, local ordinances generally bar officials from helping immigration and customs officials unless there is a criminal warrant.
TOM HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: If they're in the United States illegally, they're going to be arrested too. So, sanctuary cities are going to get exactly what they don't want. More agents in the communities, more people arrested, more collateral is arrested. So, that's a game they want to play, game on.
WILD (voice-over): Now, the Department of Justice is threatening to prosecute local and state officials who obstruct, resist or fail to enforce immigration law. The impact of stepped up immigration actions could be massive, according to leaders here, particularly for businesses who regularly use migrant labor. Here in heavily Hispanic Little Village, normally busy streets are slow.
JENNIFER AGUILAR, LITTLE VILLAGE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Ever since the word got out over the weekend, we have seen and heard from our small businesses that flood traffic and that the amount of people they're seeing is just going down drastically.
WILD (voice-over): It's a real fear that is impacting an entire community.
SAM TOLA, ILLINOIS RESTAURANT ASSOCIATION: We're a very independent restaurant community, not a chain restaurant, so we could see some of our independent restaurants closing.
WILD (voice-over): With so much uncertain, this woman can only hope to still fulfill her dream.
I came here for something, she says. I came to fight. I came to get ahead and I haven't done anything. I don't want to feel like a failure.
WILD (on camera): Local officials here say outreach is absolutely critical. And today the city of Chicago unveiled a Know Your Rights campaign that will be on video displays throughout the Chicago Transit Authority. So that's trains and buses here in the City of Chicago. Whitney Wild, CNN, Chicago.
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BRUNHUBER: Coming up, crews trying to get the upper hand on the newest major wildfire to threaten the Los Angeles area. We'll have the latest on containment efforts. That and more coming up. Please stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: The risk of wildfires igniting in parts of Southern California remains high in the coming hours as much of L.A. and Ventura County is still under a red flag warning from the National Weather Service.
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But fire crews are gaining ground on the latest inferno that scorched the region.
The Hughes Fire north of the metro area is now 36 percent contained. Tens of thousands of people remain under evacuation orders and warnings. and an estimated 14,000 structures are at risk, though no casualties have been reported. CNN's Veronica Miracle picks up the story.
VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you look in the distance just here where all of this -- where the fire burned through all of this hillside, you'll see a pink line in the distance. That's a line of fire retardant made of fertilizer and it's used to stop the fire from growing. And you can see here it really did its job because closest to us there's burned hillside but then just beyond it.
There's a vegetation that did not burn, which is incredible news. If we walk just a little bit this way you can get -- really get a scope of the apocalyptic landscape and what firefighters were contending with, the rugged hillsides. They brought in bulldozers and hand crews and they also had to attack this from the air to make sure that the flames did not reach nearby communities which they were able to do.
Also today, California Governor Gavin Newsom is signing a $2.5 billion relief package. That's going to be money that will be used for victims of the recent fires as well as for restoration and cleanup. Veronica Miracle, CNN, Castaic, California.
BRUNHUBER: David Acuna is the Battalion Chief and Public Information Officer for CAL FIRE and he's in Sacramento, California. Thank you so much for making the time here for us this morning. Several blazes including some new ones all burning. What concerns you the most right now?
DAVID ACUNA, BATTALION CHIEF & PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, CAL FIRE: Thank you so much for having me on. You're correct. We continue to have new fires pop up. We've had several pop up in the Riverside County area, San Diego County. It just reaffirms that the area between Ventura and San Diego is all in a threat level.
And so we're frankly concerned about any area that's not currently burning because that's where the next fire is going to be, which is why we need the public's help. Take you from making one more spark which will allow for one less wildfire.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, you talk about the threat level. Obviously, it's the winds, a fourth consecutive day of red flag fire weather warnings. I mean, it creates such a huge challenge for firefighters, right?
ACUNA: Yeah, absolutely it does because it moves the fire so quickly that even once the winds slow down, the fuels will still be critically dry. All those grass and brush that we watch burn so fast on the Hughes Fire, they're still that critically dry. All that is right next to it can easily begin again if given the right ignition. So, that's why we need people to be very vigilant.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah. So, dryness is a problem but we could also have the opposite problem because in terms of the weather forecast its sort of a good news bad news story. Rain is expected which is obviously great help for fighting the fires, but then there's that danger of mudslides.
ACUNA: You're absolutely right. It's a delicate balance. So, because we are looking at the potential for there to be pockets of heavy rain, may not be heavy overall, but because we have potential for heavy rain and lightning strikes, we're preparing now with prescriptive actions on the Palisades and Eaton fires to ensure that water runs to the correct drainages rather than causing debris flows or mudslides.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, and you mentioned the Palisades and Eaton fires there. After those, have you noticed that people have been more willing to evacuate when they get the warnings? Do you think that was a wake-up call?
ACUNA: You know, the L.A. County sheriffs talked about it and according to them on the press conference I watched, they said that they did notice that people were much more willing to listen to them orders and get out of the way early because of the just tragic loss of life that happened on the other Los Angeles fires.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, and again, you don't represent them but I want to ask you about that because in the wake of the devastation of those fires there's now an investigation into L.A. County's emergency alert system because some residents say they never got any evacuation orders. So, just in general, does that just emphasize how important these early warnings can be?
ACUNA: Well, it does but it also reaffirms the need to have multiple ways of getting information. So having your own cell phone which everybody has the entire breadth of the internet right in their palm of their hands. You go to fire.ca.gov and we always track fires over 10 acres.
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We'll always put up the evacuation warnings, evacuation orders so that if there is any type of hiccup and I'm not sure if there was, but if there is, then we have a secondary means of getting that information out.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah. Listen, we'll have to leave it there but really appreciate having you on this morning for us. David Acuna in Sacramento. Thank you so much.
ACUNA: Thank you.
BRUNHUBER: With the ceasefire in Gaza, Israel shifts focus to the occupied West Bank. Palestinian officials say they're worried Israel wants to do to the West Bank what it did to Gaza. New details straight ahead.
Plus, after 10 harrowing months in Israeli detention, one Palestinian journalist, now reunited with her family, is speaking out about the abuse and humiliation she says she and many others endured in Israeli custody.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom." Israeli forces killed two Palestinian men during its ongoing military operations in the occupied West Bank. Video shows the building where the men were killed in an exchange of gunfire with Israeli troops, which has now reduced rubble.
The two are suspected of carrying out a shooting attack that killed three Israelis and injured multiple people earlier this month. Israel claims they were terrorists affiliated with Islamic Jihad, a militant group linked to Hamas.
The deadly operation comes after Israel's prime minister on Tuesday declared the start of a, quote, "large-scale military operation" targeting so-called terrorists in the West Bank. Palestinian officials warn Israel is trying to replicate its Gaza offensive in the occupied territory.
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VARSEN AGHABEKIAN, PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER: They're telling us very clearly, we're done with Gaza for the time being. Now it's a time on the West Bank and we will do on the West Bank what we have done on the Gaza Strip.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Over the past few days, Israel's expanded operations in the West Bank have killed at least 10 people. Palestinian officials say it has displaced thousands. It began shortly after the start of the delicate ceasefire process in Gaza.
Earlier I spoke to Hagar Shezaf, West Bank correspondent for Haaretz, about what Palestinians in the West Bank are facing as this military operation ramps up. Here she is.
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HAGAR SHEZAF, WEST BANK CORRESPONDENT, HAARETZ: What we are seeing is both obviously a continuation of what we saw in Gaza, but also a continuation of Israeli operations in the West Bank for more than a year now, but it has intensified throughout the war. Israel is specifically trying to target armed groups, armed Palestinian groups in Jenin, which is considered to be the center of the Palestinian armed groups.
At the same time, what we see that is influencing the Israeli decisions very much is the makeup of the Israeli government, and specifically the fact that we have Bezalel Smotrich, who is a settler himself and is a very extreme right-wing politician who is pushing very hard for months now that the West Bank will become a central theater of the war.
So this is, you know -- so it's -- obviously there are security considerations here, but there are also clearly political considerations in this escalation.
BRUNHUBER: Yeah, absolutely. And in terms of the violence, what we're seeing isn't just sort of the Israeli military operation. There's been a surge of violence between Palestinians and settlers as well. What's behind that?
SHEZAF: So again, what we have seen in recent years is, I think, maybe two processes. First of all, we have seen a rise in the presence of armed groups in the West Bank and of arms and weapons by Palestinian militants in the West Bank, which has resulted in attacks against, you know, both settlers and people in Israel and also the Israeli military. So we've seen that. And, you know, there has been a rising violence. Not, again -- it's a longer process than only since the war began.
At the same time, what we are seeing, again, a longer process, but obviously it has intensified since the forming of this government, and even more since the war started, is the rise of settler violence. And again, a lot of settlers also received much more weapons since the war started, both from the Israeli military, and people were able to obtain also weapons, you know, just personal weapons.
So we've seen that influence, the intensity of attacks, of settler attacks on Palestinians. And You know, the fact that we have a very extreme right-wing government that identifies very much with settlers has also resulted in a lack of any enforcement against -- violence against Palestinians. So that has obviously contributed to the intensifying of violence against Palestinians.
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BRUNHUBER: Ninety (ph) Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli detention as the ceasefire deal took effect earlier this week. In exchange, Hamas freed three Israeli hostages. Now, among the newly freed Palestinians is a West Bank journalist who was jailed for her social media posts. Now, after 10 harrowing months in Israeli jail, she's reunited with her family and her young daughter who barely knows her mother's face. CNN's Nada Bashir reports from Bethlehem in the West Bank.
NADA BASHIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Little Elia is still adjusting to finally having her mother back home. Rula Hassanein, a Palestinian journalist from the occupied West Bank, was arrested by Israeli security forces when her daughter was just nine months old. Now, after 10 months in detention, she is among the first Palestinian prisoners to be freed as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement.
RULA HASSANEIN, PALESTINIAN JOURNALIST AND RELEASED DETAINEE (TEXT): Of course, my daughter forgot what I looked like. My husband and family members would show her photos of me. They would tell her that this is your mother, but a photo is nothing like the real thing. I would dream about my daughter a lot. My first Ramadan after having Elia was spent in prison. I was in prison for her first Eid, and I also missed out on the memory of her first birthday.
BASHIR (voice-over): This was the moment Rula was reunited with her daughter and husband last week. Having suffered from health complications in the first few months of life, Rula says it was a relief to see her daughter doing well after almost a year of agonizing separation. But Rula herself has also been through unimaginable suffering while in detention.
HASSANEIN (TEXT): During our transfer, we weren't allowed to drink water, eat any food, use the bathroom or even pray.
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BASHIR (voice-over): Rula says that the day she and 89 other prisoners were transferred for release, was part of the ceasefire deal, they were subjected to hours
of psychological and physical abuse.
She recalls that they were pushed down to their knees, dragged across the ground while handcuffed and dressed only in thin layers while out in the cold. They were then made to watch hours of Israeli propaganda video before being released.
But like so many other Palestinians in Israeli jails, abuse and harassment had become a daily occurrence for Rula.
BASHIR: What were the conditions like inside the prison?
HASSANEIN (from captions): Regarding the female prisoners, they violated all international human rights to protect us. We were also deprived of our most essential private needs.
During our time of the month, male guards would say we don't need to change our sanitary pads every hour, only every four or five hours. They confiscated our underwear and left us with only one piece to wear.
We saw female prisoners from Gaza who were brought to Damon prison. Some of them looked like they were in a very difficult state. During their time of the month, their clothes would be covered in blood. It was horrifying. The guards were mocking them.
BASHIR: The Israeli prison service has told CNN that they are not aware of any such claims. But the harsh conditions faced by Palestinians in Israeli jails has been widely documented.
In a report published in July 2024, the U.N. human rights office said: Palestinian detainees are subjected to systematic beatings, humiliation and threats in addition to severe restrictions on food, water and essential hygiene products.
Like many Palestinians, Rula was tried before a military court rather than a civil court and later charged with incitement on social media over posts shared where she had expressed frustration over the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
HASSANEIN (from captions): It isn't a new policy to hold Palestinians accountable for their thoughts. Many Palestinians have been targeted for their art or writing. It has become so easy for them to arrest someone simply by accusing them of incitement on social media.
BASHIR: For Rula, it is impossible to forget the suffering that she and other Palestinian detainees have been forced to endure. But she says her focus now is on enjoying each moment with her daughter and husband.
Nada Bashir, CNN in Bethlehem.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: The International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders for alleged gender- based crimes. Afghan women and girls have been living under the Taliban's repressive rules since the group rose back to power more than three years ago.
But as CNN's Salma Abdelaziz reports, the ICC is cracking down on women's rights in Afghanistan.
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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It gives us hope that our voices are not forgotten. That's what one woman inside Afghanistan told me after the ICC said that it is seeking arrest warrants for the supreme leader of the Taliban and the chief justice of the group for alleged gender-based crimes that could amount to crimes against humanity.
Now since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the group has slowly but surely been erasing women and girls from public life. Girls can't go to university, can't go to secondary school, can't step out of their homes without a full veil, can't even sing in public.
In fact, the latest edict from the Taliban says that women should not be seen from windows.
Now this is still one step away from an official arrest warrant from The Hague-based court. That would have to be approved by a judge. The chief prosecutor of the ICC also indicated that he may pursue arrest warrants for other Taliban officials.
Human Rights Watch, which has closely been following these violations against women and girls in Afghanistan, welcomed the news and said they hope that it leads to concrete action on the ground.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: This could be the final legal chapter in the Amanda Knox saga. She's the American who was jailed in Italy and later acquitted of the 2007 murder of her British roommate. And now, Italy's high court is upholding the remaining slander conviction against her. Knox was convicted of falsely accusing her former boss, Patrick Lumumba, of murdering Meredith Kercher.
Knox had signed two police prepared statements making the accusation, but later questioned her claims. According to Reuters news agency, Lumumba said he was very satisfied with the ruling.
Now, for her part, Knox wasn't at the hearing but did react on social media saying, quote, it's a surreal day.
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I've just been found guilty yet again of a crime I didn't commit. Knox doesn't face any additional jail time.
The British teenager who stabbed three young girls to death at a UK dance event, was sentenced to at least 52 years in jail on Thursday. Axel Rudakubana admitted to those murders and the stabbing of ten others at a Taylor Swift themed dance class in the coastal town of Southport, north of Liverpool in England. The judge said he couldn't impose a full life sentence because the accused was 17 at the time of the crimes, but that he was unlikely ever to be released from prison.
Rudakubana also admitted to possessing an al Qaeda training manual and producing the toxin ricin. There were widespread riots in the UK following the killings.
Japan's prison population is looking a lot older ahead. Why the fear of loneliness outweighs the stigma of jail.
Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: With a rapidly aging population, Japan's prisons are becoming an attractive refuge for some elderly inmates.
CNN's Hanako Montgomery goes inside the country's largest women's prison to find out why.
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HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Despite what you see, this is no nursing home, It's Japan's biggest women's prison.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I celebrated my 81st birthday in here. MONTGOMERY: Tochigi Women's Prison is on the front lines of Japan's loneliness epidemic among seniors. One in five inmates here are elderly. You see it in the wrinkled hands, gripping walls. Hear it in a slow shuffle of walkers. And you feel it too. A strange serenity blankets this place. Security more a formality than a necessity.
This is the first and only security checkpoint that we've gone through to enter this prison.
Inside we see inmate after inmate with gray hair, bent backs.
The 81-year-old prisoner, who's anonymous to protect her privacy, tells me she's here for shoplifting. But it's not her first time behind bars. Twenty years ago, she was in for the same crime, she says. The only way she knew how to get back to prison.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): When I got caught this time, I thought, I don't care what happens to me anymore. I want to die. I don't care if I live or not. I can't tell you how difficult it is to be alone.
MONTGOMERY: Japan's crime rate is one of the lowest in the world, but its prison system is now flooded with senior inmates who increasingly see prison as home.
MEGUMI, CORRECTIONS OFFICER (through translator): There's no one to take care of them outside, and they're repeatedly abandoned. They come here because they don't have anywhere else to go.
MONTGOMERY: The Japanese government says the country's aging population means more lonely seniors and a surge in elderly crime.
In the last 20 years, the number of elderly inmates has nearly quadrupled. And it's changing life here for everyone.
TAKAYOSHI SHIRANAGA, CORRECTIONS OFFICER (through translator): Now, we have to change their diapers, help them bathe, eat. At this point, it feels more like a nursing home than a prison full of convicted criminals.
MONTGOMERY: This inmate, in for drug use, tells me she earned her nursing license behind bars after spending so much time caring for elderly prisoners.
We are shown a workshop where guards don't bark orders but help elderly prisoners with their medicine, making sure they don't hurt themselves.
Meals are taken in cells alone and in silence. But for some, just knowing someone is nearby is enough.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): My son tells me to disappear. He says, I don't care when you die. They are very good people in this prison.
I am very thankful that in prison I can live a regular life every day. MONTGOMERY: With no one and nowhere to go, some of Japan's elderly are choosing a life of crime, as freedom is a cheap price to pay for the chance to not die alone.
Hanako Montgomery, CNN, Tochigi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: On a much lighter note, now, 25 newborn panda cubs in China made their public debut on Thursday. The event, called lucky wishes and adorable newcomers, and you'll see why. As part of a celebration for the upcoming Chinese New Year, it featured two groups of the cubs born last year. They were seen playing among sticky rice balls, snake shaped toys and symbols of good fortune, red lanterns.
One of the organizers, the China conservation and research center for the giant panda, has worked on panda exchanges with 18 zoos from 16 countries and regions.
Well, this week's rare record snowfall in Texas forced the Houston zoo to close for a few days. But the winter wonderland brought some of the animals outside for a bit of fun. Now, a young Asian elephant named teddy went for a run in the snow as his keeper tried to keep up and a pride of lions seemed unsure of what to do with all that cold stuff.
The deep freeze that swept across southern states from Texas to the Carolinas this week will stick around through Sunday. They seem very confused there.
That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber.
"WORLD SPORT" is next. And then there's more. CNN NEWSROOM in about 15 minutes with Eleni Giokos from Abu Dhabi.
(WORLD SPORT)
