improve to 2-0 for the first time since 2013. you said at the beginning, two weeks in the nfl season, aaron rodgers going down in week one. nick chubb in week two. rough so far. >> it has. chris olave, ohio state buckeye, right? >> poppy was noting that? good, good, poppy. >> as i was just noting. >> just saying. >> thank, buddy. we appreciate it. "cnn this morning" continues right now. >> president biden steps back on to the world stage, addressing the general assembly at the united nations. >> what will the united states of america do when putin reaches the baltic states. he will. ♪ five american hostages wrongly detained inside iran for years, touched down on u.s. soil. >> incentivizing teheran's bad behavior has left americans less secure. >> five americans are coming home to their family.

every american should be celebrating that right now. >> trump trying to put the nail in florida governor ron desantis coffin. >> i think what he did was a terrible thing and terrible mistake. >> all pro lifers should know he's preparing to sell you out. >> the race in iowa is a furious one for second place. ♪ so happy to bring you the images we are about to show you. this is breaking news. it is brand new video. look at this. this is the first we're seeing of five americans freed from prison in iran. finally landing moments ago on u.s. soil. morad tahbaz and emad shargi and siamak namazi. on to the u.s. they were released as part of a wider deal that includes the united states unfreezing 6 billion in iranian funds.

these freed americans will have the option to participate in a department of defense program to help them acclimate back to life. remember, nahazi was in prison for almost eight years. we're going to speak with his uncle straight ahead. >> separate the policy and the politics for a minute and families being day just hours from now, president biden is set to speak on the world stage at the united nations and it comes at a moment of global crisis or crises. there's a brutal grinding war in ukraine with no end in sight. catastrophic climate disasters around the world. the earth just had its hottest summer on record and a growing migrant crisis, just to name a few. several key world leaders wouldn't be there at the u.n., russia, china, france, the uk. their leaders are sitting this one out. it's casting doubt about how much can actually be accomplished this week. >> cnn chief national security correspondent and anchor jim sciutto with us in studio. jim, thank you for being here. we want to walk through the issues that biden is likely to

tackle in this speech today. >> big picture, he will make a pitch for democracy in effect. that's the dividing line that the biden administration sees. and they're not alone in that. you have the u.s., its allies in the west and the east, aligned against russia and china and iran in north korea, in places like ukraine, of course. russia's invasion of ukraine but also concerns about chinese aspirations for taiwan. iran's various aggression in the region there. he's going to say, we need to stand for this. we have successfully stood for it in ukraine. here are the other ways we're trying to do that. but this is a defining battle. that's going to be his pitch. and he's going to say, of course, there's a heck of a lot more work to do. >> president zelenskyy of ukraine is here. he's not only meeting with biden. he's meeting with congressional leaders. i thought this exchange between scott pelley of "6 and what does the u.s. do in terms of further support. let's listen to this.

>> he's waiting for the united states to become less stable. he thinks that's going to happen during the u.s. election. he'll be looking for instability in europe and the united states of america. he will use the risk of using nuclear weapons to fuel that instability. he will keep on threatening. >> i think it was notable that zelenskyy didn't say yes directly when he was asked about this level of aid continuing from the u.s. >> he's aware of the politics here that you have opposition from the republican party. some not exhaustion, i don't think that's the word, but declining interest and support from the american people. so he's conscious that it won't be as easy to get that support from now going forward. it's not going to disappear. he is also worried. he is not alone. i speak to officials in europe, many of our allies who look at this election as defining.

they are concerned and concern is not the strongest word i've heard over there about the possibility of trump returning and what that means for the u.s. position in the world. membership in nato, support for ukraine. support for taiwan. so, he's not alone in looking at that election. by the way, you know that cnn's reporting that vladimir putin is waiting for the election, too, hoping he might get a friendlier person in office. >> jim, you were there. you were in ukraine when russia invaded. to think of where we are now and think of zelenskyy coming again to the united states and to the global stage to make the case. it's just stunning as their offensive continues, this spring offensive continues, but very slowly. >> it is. step out for some perspective. of course in the early days of the war, the expectation was they were going to lose, right? russia was going -- >> take weeks, days. >> days, three days to get kyiv. that didn't happen. so, perspective wise, it's been a remarkable defense of the

country. and ukraine still stands, right? and nato stands together with ukraine and nato has expanded. that's big picture. but the fact is the counteroffensive has not met expectations, neither western expectations nor ukrainian expectations. it's making some progress. but when i speak to officials here in the u.s. and europe, what they will say privately is they don't expect ukraine to win this war any time soon. right? and what they'll say even more quietly is that ukraine is basically fighting for bargaining position right now. they find it probably too much of a stretch to imagine ukraine gets back all the territory russia has taken. they're not going to say that to zelenskyy. >> zelenskyy says the opposite. he says and crimea. >> he says. when you speak privately to u.s. officials they don't look at this as an achievable goal. >> join us back at the table. we'll continue this discussion. i want to bring in

christiane amanpour and anchor of "inside politics" dana bash. christiane, you had very stark interview with antonio gutierrez. i want to talk about your reaction to the sound from zelenskyy. >> yeah. look, the sound is really interesting. it shows that he's got his real ear to the ground of american politics and politics around nato who are trying to help him. the fact of the matter is that congress still supports aid to ukraine. both houses, majorities, okay. big deal. obviously people get tired. the other fact of the matter is you can see the map. russia occupies quite a lot there. unfortunately ukraine, despite all the help it has had with biden's leadership and the other allies coming together, it's not enough and it's not soon enough. they have no air cover to conduct this counteroffensive in a way that any other military would be expected to conduct a counteroffensive. the united states never goes on the ground without having claimed air superiority before

it does that. how do you expect the ukrainians to push forward with all this fancy new technology that they have without having some cover? that's a problem. the other issue is that even the secretary general and many of the international leaders who i speak to will not say that now is the time to negotiate because they know it's not. there's no parody on the ground. there's no ability for ukraine to negotiate. putin shows absolutely no sign of wanting to negotiate. and the secretary general of nato, who i will be speaking to today, has already said this is bound to go on for a long time. so, if the west wants ukraine to win the very simple equation is they have to beef up what they give ukraine in order for it to win. or, in order for it to make enough of a dent to tell putin a story that is different than the one he expects. >> is there, dana, sort of an autopsy, if you will, internally in the administration and among members of congress to why did we wait?

almost everything zelenskyy has asked for the united states has ended up giving. just about six months after he has asked for it. >> i don't know that there has been an autopsy of such yet. there probably will be. but there has been so much -- you both know this so well, so much hand wringing about when you give zelenskyy what he wants, how much is that going to poke the bear? how much is that going to make putin say, i don't know. this is -- you're putting your thumb on the scale. and then you're right. they end up doing it because the thumb is on the scale. this is something that the president says very clearly isn't just about ukraine the country, it's about the notion of democracy full stop. >> can i just add there because it's so vital because putin has used this leverage to scare the bejesus out of everybody. >> elon musk. >> yes. we don't want to start world war

iii. putin, most people, believe will not do this. the chinese have basically told him, that's a step too far and stop even the threats. but zelenskyy told me, you guys are all scared. i asked him, how come you're not scared of poking the bear. he said because we live in this neighborhood. we know him. we know what it takes. and we have to keep going. >> you mentioned world war iii. i remember vividly nancy pelosi and others at the very beginning of the discussion of whether or not the polls -- excuse me, that the u.s. bases in the nato areas can be used to transfer planes. remember that was the first big -- >> big deal. >> big, big deal. >> and the answer was no because it will cause world war iii. >> each weapon system was prior to the west sending it to ukraine viewed as a potential escalator, right? high mars was in that category, tanks were in that category and then over time the west sends them and russia, to your point, does not escalate. they don't drop a tactical nuclear weapon, et cetera.

so there's a view, you know this better than me, in europe among some particularly in the east, that some in the west exaggerated that threat, right? the threat of russia going ballistic at each step. now you have the f-16s which were always a red line. we're not going that far. appears they are going to go that far. did you wait too long to truly enable ukraine in this counteroffensive to gain the ground they need. the argument the military will make, to your point, dana, is that we give them the weapons that they need and that they're capable of handling at the time. you can't just drop an f-16 in ukraine and say fly it. it takes weeks and months. >> but you can start training -- jim, you know better than anyone. you can start training them on these things months later so they're ready. >> they have to teach the ukrainian pilots english to work on the system. many will speak it but speak it to a level they can handle the system and the training and that kind of stuff. you're thinking they could have started 18 months on these kinds

of steps. >> biden and zelenskyy together at the u.n. makes a very important double headed whamny. biden, the only head of the security council, who will be there, it's an opportunity for him to really own this week. the others aren't going to be there. >> that's a great point. >> and zelenskyy coming to washington. both chambers do support as a majority, however within the republican conference in the house is a significant problem. dana, i want to ask you because i think the republican front-runner looms over all of this, particularly on the world stage. everyone is watching what's happening here. and the republican front-runner made israel and aligning with benjamin netanyahu and pushing forward a central part of what he did in office even if it seems more like he was doing what advisers said was smart for him to do, he has once again basically tried to target a subset of american jews.

lib let's hope you learn from your mistakes, make better choices moving forward, happy new year. the reason why u don't want to just let this pass as like trump on social media being crazy because that's what trump does on social media is because i'm trying to think of the construct of if a democratic lawmaker said that conservative catholics were ruining the country because of their views, if you're catholic and vote republican, you should -- you're ruining the country. people would freak out and rightfully so. >> this is i'm going to borrow christiane's favorite phrase to be truthful and not neutral here. there is nothing, nothing, even close to appropriate about what he said. in fact, this is classic trump trying to divide subsets of

america, divide people who are already -- he sees that there are not just embers but there are flames of division within the jewish community and within american culture when it comes to israel. it is so incredibly dangerous. i did a whole hour on anti-semitism growing in america. and a big part of it was, according to expert after expert who looked at the research and looked at the threats and the timelines, donald trump saying things like this, pushing the door open a little bit, and white supremacists and people who have been feeling this way for a long time shoving the door open. and he knows full well that this kind of rhetoric is incredibly dangerous and he just thinks that it's advantageous to him and he does it. >> and is terribly dangerous from that political point of view and religious and cultural

and social point of view but also gio strategic, geopolitical malpractice. donald trump assisted by his buddy, benjamin netanyahu and the crown prince of saudi arabia decided to pull out of the iran nuclear deal and all that kind of stuff. and now, you know, benjamin netanyahu is presiding over the assault on democracy in the one democratic state the middle east. these are really, really important things to put into context. then to have this kind of stirring on top of everything else. >> fascinating because president biden will meet on the sidelines -- >> yes. not to white house notice. i don't know. is he going to the white house, netanyahu? >> no. >> when you speak to officials in europe, as i know you do and this is a word i heard from a senior administration official last week about their conversations with europeans about the possible return of trump, it's not a political statement, just how people are viewing this, the word is terrified. that is because when you look at this divide, democracy versus

authoritarianism, trump on ukraine, russia, a whole host of issues they see as a see change coming if he were to be re-elected. >> this is a conversation writ large we could have for multiple hours. appreciate you coming up. this just in, new video we showed at the start, will continue to show throughout the hour, the five americans freed from prison in iran finally arriving on u.s. soil. we'll speak to the uncle of one of the released detainees coming up. meantime the "wall street journal" reporter imprisoned in russia will be back in court this morning fighting for his freedom. our own matthew chance is there. conquer 2000-word essays. conquer a 6 course menu. rule over what you write with the smooth writing, longest lasting gel ink pen in america.

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ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy... ...and save at trelegy.com. just moments ago, look at that, five americans returning to u.s. soil after spending years imprisoned in iran. they were freed yesterday as part of a deal that includes unfreezing $6 billion in iranian money and releasing five iranians in u.s. custody. the man you see there, that embrace, see ya mack namazi, arrested in 2015, you see him

his first hug to his son. he spent nearly eight years in prison becoming iran's longest-held american prisoner. earlier this year he described his ordeal to our christiane amanpour. >> i think the short answer is that i've always been made to feel that my humanity has been taken away from me, not just my freedom. >> you can hear the strain in his voice. joining me now in studio is his uncle. thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> the first time you're seeing those pictures of him on u.s. soil. what does it feel like? >> well, the whole family -- we have a big family. the whole family went through such a lot of ups and downs. knowing what he's going through in prison, eight years, subject to torture, the first two years,

then to finally see him come down the plane, it was, no words can describe it because, really the whole family has been through hell. and praying for this moment. finally it's arrived. we're all so jubilant, that the moment has come. >> did you think this day might not come? >> well, there were so many occasions when we thought that he's going to be released. and then our hopes were dashed. finally we realized, no. there's no point in being happy prospects of him being released until he's really out of the air space of iran. and this came about. and really it's for the whole family it's greatest news we could ever expected. >> have you spoken to him? >> well, he arrived with my

sister-in-law, his mother, couple of hours after midnight. so, we said we're all going to give him space. >> sure. >> because this will be the first time that the four of them are going to be together. in eight years. have their first breakfast together in eight years. and they are housed in a very nice area for two weeks. and i'm sure that siamak will have to undergo medical treatment for the first few days and then we hope the family can go to washington and link up with him the second week. >> you know, we all know his name because of his ordeal. but you know the person. can you just remind everyone what he is like as a human? >> well, he's such a likable person. and to give you an example, when he was in prison, he would telephone all the uncles and

aunts and siblings and he was so resilient instead of us trying to cheer him up, he was cheering us up. >> really? >> knowing that what we were going through for him. he wanted to show that, look, don't worry. i'm good. i'm doing good. >> selfless. >> you can just imagine how resilient he is. >> yet he endured some of the most terrible, inhumane conditions in teheran's notorious prison. his lawyer was on cnn yesterday. i want to play for you and for other people how his lawyer could finally speak openly about what those conditions were actually like. i want to warn people, this is very hard to hear. but here is what he went through for eight years. here it is. >> he was beaten. he was tased. he had electrodes connected to his genitals. this is all bad enough. but actually the worst thing they did to him over that time was after his dad was detained, they showed him the video of him

being detained and he knew his father was clearly in the prison somewhere, not far from him as it turned out. and about a month later they came to him and said, we have some sad news for you. your father just died. we're really sorry, but you won't be allowed out to go to his funeral. they left him that way in the cell for a full week until they came and told him, well, actually we were just joking about that. >> mental torture, physical torture. when you hear that -- >> in fact, i heard him yesterday saying for the first time they told siamak that his father had passed away. and that they didn't tell him for a week, let him know for a week that his father was not -- that they would not allow him to go to his father's memorial. it took a week for them to finally tell him, no, your father is alive. and you can imagine the torture

that you undergo when you know your father has passed and you can't even attend his memorial. >> today brings so many emotions for you and your family. i know. but there are so many other families out there whose loved ones are detained, wrongfully detained overseas. can you speak to them this morning with the hope that you now feel given siamak's return? >> there are still a lot of people detained in iran and everywhere else. we never gave up hope. there was always -- we knew that a lot of efforts were being made for the release. it took a lot. obama administration, trump administration and finally -- three administrations to finally get him released. i say there's always hope. and it took a long time, but

finally after eight years, longest-surviving hostage in iran. >> yeah. >> thank you very much. i'm so happy for you and your family. i bet you can't wait to hug him. >> thank you. you're right. can't wait to hug him. and the whole family because his mother also was fantastic in saying i will not leave iran until i'm accompanying my son. and she stayed firmly by his side and finally they were both able to get out. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. phil? >> great news. president biden defending his age as experience and fiery remarks last night. we'll tell you what he said. and florida governor ron desantis attacking former president trump for his abortion stance. ♪ >> i think all pro lifers should know that he's preparing to sell you out. ♪

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♪ just like the first gop debate, former president trump plans to skip the second one, too. it's scheduled for next

wednesday as the reagan presidential library in california. instead, trump plans to head to detroit to give a primetime speech to more than 500 workers including current and former members of the autoworkers union. this union currently on strike. the trump campaign produced a radio ad that will run in detroit and toledo, ohio to align with the autoworkers. the campaign is considering the possibility of having trump make an appearance at the picket line. joinings us now is josh bare row and van jones. van, i'm fascinated by the economic elements of what's going on between the big three and the uaw right now. but i think the political elements are enormous. and that is rank and file union workers have not been as aligned with democrats since the emergence of trump as they traditionally have been. and this is a moment that creates potentially an opportunity. >> it's a big tug of war.

union joe versus the blue collar billionaire. there's this demographic which for a long time was presumably blue. blue collar, blue voters. that was presumptive. then in 2016 that blue wall cracked. it cracked because of donald trump's appeal on nafta and that stuff. suddenly it's a jump ball. and this year is maybe the biggest labor up surge in a generation, 300,000 plus american workers on strike right now from hollywood workers to people on the front lines in the auto industry and labor matters. unions matter. and they are a jump ball. so you see donald trump reaching in there and trying to grab at the heart strings of those workers. now the reality is none of his policies are going to be great for those workers. joe biden has policies that would be fantastic for those workers. right now it's about the optics.

>> not all of them. you brought this up with the acting labor secretary that was so interesting. that is the issue of the biden push for electric vehicles. this internal memo from the uaw from may reads the federal government is pouring billions into the electric vehicle transition with no strings attached, no commitment to workers. we want to see national leadership have our back on this before we make any commitments. and that is what republican politicians are capitalizing on. saying they're putting the green economy ahead of you. >> that's what trump is trying to make the issue of this strike about. the green vehicle transition is putting a significant financial strain on the automakers and requiring large capital investments. >> explain to people why. >> they have to build all these new factors and facilities often. >> nonunionized workers doing that. >> that's the second part of it. electric vehicles are less labor intensive to build than combustion engine vehicles and it's unclear exactly how much supply chain will be union yiezed.

some you can work with the union on and you could have policies that would promote more unionization there. still the bigger issues of money going into capital instead of labor and ending up with a less labor intensive process. that is the opportunity for trump to capitalize on here. the problem is he's not really fluent in this language and been out there attacking the head of the united autoworkers union. i don't see any clear that the rank and file is upset with their own union leader. ultimately he's a business leader. i don't think it's his first language to talk to labor about why labor need to get what it deserves in a negotiation with business. and only so much of this can be ascribed to public policy. but i think that is where he sees the opening there. >> but, at the margins, if he's pulling off a couple percentage points here and there from traditional democratic voters, it's a win for him, whether or not he can speak to language or not. i want to ask you, josh, actually both of you, the back and forth on abortion that we have seen in the republican primary has been fascinating based on historical precedent but also what it means for now. i want to play what former president trump said and then the response from ron desantis.

>> desantis is willing to sign a five-week and six-week ban. >> would you support that? >> i think what he did is a terrible thing and terrible mistake. other than certain parts of the country, you can't -- you're not going to win on this issue. but you will win on this issue when you come up with the right number of weeks. >> any time he did a deal with democrats, whether it was on budget, whether it was on the criminal justice first step act, they ended up taking him to the cleaners. he's going to make the democrats happy with respect to right to life. i think all pro lifers should know that he's preparing to sell you out. >> i mean, i think that democrats are reasonably afraid that trump will succeed in muddying the waters on this issue. trump knows this issue has been a political loser for republicans. there was news reporting about his instant reaction to the dobbs decision and how he basically was focussed on how this was going to be a huge

political problem. and democrats have arguments to make this is all his fault. he appointed these people to the judiciary who brought down this decision. he made comments in the past about you need to punish women for having abortion. so they can make an argument he's trying to pander to voters who are pro choice and ultimately he'll do what a republican president would do and try to restrict abortion. but he's getting to the more -- to the more -- the politically stronger ground here. and he's only helped by the fact that he will be attacked from his right. if he gets pro life activists attacking him as a squish, ron desantis attacking him as a squish, that only helps him in a general election, see, i bucked my party on one of the most popular positions with my party. i think it's a political problem for democrats. >> does he get to have it both ways? hey, conservative voters, i told you i would appoint pro life justices to the supreme court and i got three. oh, and by the way, the way that other republicans are dealing with it now with these six-week bans, et cetera, that's not right either. i win both ways. >> that's what he's trying to

do. the republicans are the dog that caught the car. and now the car is backing up over them. over and over again. that's the problem the republicans have on this issue. they got what they wanted but what they wanted is so unpopular it cost them full control of congress and a bunch of other stuff. and more pain to come for republicans in general because there's more pain to come for women in general. you have these horror stories coming out at the local level, people who have ectopic pregnancies, almost dying having to go to a different state. doctors afraid to help women. so the reason this is an issue is because actual human beings are suffering and afraid. actual doctors are scared to help save lives they don't want to go to prison in multiple states across the country. this is a catastrophe unrolling across the country. donald trump is smart enough to know he doesn't want to be a part of that. he lies about the lies he lies about, that's his whole thing,

he will try to play both sides against the middle and run up the middle. >> thank you, guys. we appreciate it. big question this morning, why did nearly $100 million f-35 fighter jet crash, first disappear and crash in south carolina? why did the government need the public's help to find it? that's ahead. a high school band director tased by police after officers say he refused to stop a performance. we'll show you the newly released police body camera footage. that's ahead. are infused with natural essential oils for authentic seasonal scents that fill your homome with warmth and cheer. lactaid is 100% real milk, just without the lactose. delicious too. just ask my old friend, kevin. nothinlike enjoying a cold one while watching the game. who's winning? no idea. real milk. real delicious. and don't forget to try some delicious,

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♪ so take a look, this is new video just into cnn. this is debris from an f-35 fighter jet that we told you yesterday, right, had vanished for more than 24 hours. the military announced last night, though, they had located the wreckage two hours northeast of joint base charleston in south carolina. that jet disappeared on sunday. we're told the pilot was able to eject safely, taken to a medical facility, but somehow the military struggled to find the actual jet. even going as far as to ask the public for help. congress woman nancy mace said what many were thinking, quote, how the hell do you lose an f-35. how is there not a tracking device and asking the public to,

what, find a jet and turn it? in joining us now, retired senior f-35 test pilot billy flynn, has more than four decades of flying experience. you note for lockheed, manufacturer of the f-35. can you answer nancy mace's question this morning, billy? >> well, good morning to you all. i think it is the most awkwardly worded news press release of all time that had the entire world off chasing this story. it would have been better worded and the public wouldn't have been as alarmed. it's not unusual to imagine it would be difficult to find an aircraft wreckage in rural, in this case, north carolina. so 24 hours to find the airplane. we all had a news cycle to talk about it. >> i think it wasn't necessarily people were alarmed more pe perplexed, right? part of that is because you think from the technology side -- between radar systems and tracking and anything else,

again, i'm not fluent in this language at all. that's why you're here. but why is none of that helpful in a case like this? >> well, let's remember that the north american aerospace defense command, i'm certain, would have been able to track that through it all. but, now we're trying to coordinate agencies to go find wreckage, all of that takes time. and we, the public, are tangent while the military was gathering resources to go out and search what was ultimately a large area to finally find the wreckage. and remember, most importantly, the pilot was safe. so initial focus was on the pilot. then let's go find the airplane. >> that is the mainish was the pilot's safely. yes, he ejected safely. i want to ask you broadly picture about the safety component here. there have been several crashes involving military aircraft in testing. f-18 crash near san diego.

you have this. and there was a study just three years ago in 2020 that congress commissioned and what they found is that pilots across the military are not getting enough flying hours in these aircraft. do you think that is a factor? does it concern you? >> well, let's talk about the really rash of accidents in the marine corps. first of all, three separate accidents that now has prompted the marine corps to call a two-day pause to flying operations to get all the units to focus on safe operations, flight safety itself. and in the pace of the marine corps, where everybody is running pretty hard, remembering that military aviation is inherently dangerous, taking two days off to focus on safety is smart and to end this bad streak. overall, pilots do not fly as many flying hours as they did in the past. certainly in the hay day of my flying. yes, that ultimately contributes

to their ability to operate at high tempo all the time. >> billy flynn, fascinating conversation. >> let me throw one more thing out there to tell you that the f-35 has one of the most impressive safety records in its life time compared to any other fighter aircraft in the western world's history. and this accident has us focussing on the aircraft but really the fleet itself almost 1,000 of f-35s flying now are remarkably safe. >> that's an important point. billy flynn, we appreciate your time, sir. thank you. >> pleasure. good talking to you. well, ahead, what does the future look like for russia's private military group the wagner group now that the leader, evgeni prigozhin is dead. we have an exclusive report from our clarissa ward ahead.

>> reporter: these are the first images of the wagner group since his death. >> still very much a presence hehere. was also the first time you heard of a town named dinosaur, colorado. we just got an order from dinosaur, colorado. start an easy to build, powerful website for fe with a partner that always puts youirst. start for free at godaddy.com what'sonsidered normal for your cat is interesting. but if your cat isn't their irky self lately, they may have pain from a common condition called osteoarthritis. now, there's solensia. solensia is a once-monthly injection to control your cat's oa pain. veterinary professionals administering solensia who are pregnant, trying to conceive, or breast feeding should take extreme care to avoid self-injection. self-injection could cause allergic reactions like anaphylaxis. ask your vet about solensia and help get your cat back to their normal.

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nearly month after wagner boss yevgeny prigozhin tied in a plane crash, russia in a scramle to vallel centralized his empire on the african continent.

clarissa ward explains house russian's influence through wagner may be changing. >> in the central african republic the message from wagner is clear. it's business as usual. less than one month after their boss, yevgeny prigozhin, was killed in a plane crash, mass mercenaries still guard the president and cut an intimidating figure on the streets of the capital. faces covered as wagner protocol dictates, they are unapproachable and untouchable. these are the first images of wagner fighters in the country since prigozhin's death. that presence runs deep. the markets are full of cheap sachets of vodka and beer made by a wagner-owned company. the locals seem to like it. they say they don't drink the

beer, only russian beer. we've come back to the center of prigozhin's empire in africa right as his death raises questions for the regimes he protected and the mercenaries whose loyalty he inspired. our last visit was in wagner's early days here. run like the mafia, providing guns and fighters and propaganda in return for gold, dime munds and timber using intimidation and brutality along the way. that car full of russians, been following us. we don't know what they want. in this lawless war-scarred country, one of the poorest in the world, that ruthlessness and the security it brought is celebrated by many. >> welcome to -- >> wow! that is quite the t-shirt. nor'easter. >> yes. beautiful t-shirt. >> reporter: presidential

advisor fiddle says the nation is in mourning for wagner's dead leader. >> he was my friend. he was my friend. best of friend. friend of all central african people. >> reporter: why was mr. prigozhin so popular here? your mind? >> because how our country was in the war. so mr. putin give us -- prigozhin. >> reporter: aren't you notice now that he is dead things may change. >> mr. putin call our president. he told him that everything will are like yesterday. nothing will be changed. nothing. >> reporter: but according to a dep matic source here, hundreds of wagner fighters left the central african republic in july after prigozhin's failed mutiny. those who remain, including his top lieutenants, have agreed to

work for the russian ministry of defense. fighters have already been pulled back from front line outposts to population centers in an effort to cut costs, the source says. what's less clear is what becomes of wagner's civilian presence here. this is one of the last places that prigozhin was seen alive during his final tour across africa. it's called the russian cultural center, only has no connection to russia's official culture agency and was run, until recently, by prigozhin's closest associate here. photographs taken on that visit show a new face. a woman known as -- after case of asking for permission to visit, we decide to film covertly. you were here then when yevgeny prigozhin was here and the photographs -- there is the photographs of you with prigozhin together here?

>> can you show me that? >> yeah. i think it was just over in that corner. >> yeah. >> okay. that's good. >> and this is mr. prigozhin? >> yeah. >> how was he? >> very well. >> do you think he knew they were going to kill him? >> my guess. who knows? >> what does it mean for your work here? does it change anything? >> doesn't change anything if i know the president of the country dies. the country stops to exist. >> reporter: she shows us one of their daily russian classes as we step back outside, we see a wagner fighter. hi. how are you? you can just make him out retreating to the back. center where, according to the

investigative group, wagner sells gold and diamonds to vips and manages its timber and alcohol operations. who is that? a person? can we see what's there? that's weird. >> what are you going to see there? >> reporter: like most of wagner's activities here, it's clear there is still so much that is hiding from view. we've pushed the visit far enough. it's time to go. no matter who takes over here, western diplomats say they don't expect much to change. at the local orthodox church, the greet lettering has been painted over. its allegiance now to the russian patriarchy. even if the skies above the empire prigozhin built, russia's

dominance lives on. clarissa ward, cnn. welcome back. thank you. what amazing reporting. breaking this morning, this new video showing five americans freed from prison in iran. they are back on u.s. soil. we will speak to someone on that plane and critical in facilitating their release. salonpas, makers of powerful pain relief patches for 89 years... believes in continuous improvement... like rounded corners that rest peeling, and sizes torelieve your pain. salonpas. it's goomedicine.

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