Amanpour

Afghanistan has fallen from the world’s attention since the Taliban’s takeover and the chaotic American withdrawal nine months ago. But for almost everyone in the country, life has become a daily struggle against poverty. Children are particularly hard hit, with more than a million facing acute malnutrition according to UNICEF. Christiane witnessed all this firsthand, visiting a humanitarian distr...

Today's show features part one of Christiane's world exclusive interview with Afghanistan's Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, head of the feared extremist Haqqani Network. The Taliban leader has never done an interview with his face showing and has never sat on camera with a western news organization -- certainly not with a female journalist. The US government says Haqqani has American blood o...

Former US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper was sworn in just days before that now infamous phone call in 2019 where then-President Trump repeatedly asked Ukraine’s President Zelensky to investigate the Bidens in return for military aid. Esper’s new memoir, A Sacred Oath, is filled with explosive and instructive behind-the-scenes examples of what it was like working for the most disruptive American...

n a historic change for a once neutral country, driven by its neighbor Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland's leaders today said their country must apply for NATO membership "without delay". They share a 13-hundred-kilometre border with Russia, and as expected the Kremlin swiftly called the move "a threat," but  Finnish president Sauli Niinisto pointed the finger squarely at Putin. Meanwhile neig...

The US Senate votes today on a measure that would codify Roe v. Wade. Democratic leadership strongly backs its passage but didn’t expect it to get close to the filibuster-proof 60 votes required. The purpose is more symbolic, shining a spotlight on which senators – and which parties – are for and against abortion rights. The ACLU’s Alexa Kolbi-Molinas recently argued a case on abortion rights befo...

As Europe and the G7 plan to phase out Russian oil, could this help or hurt the struggle for green energy? Joining the show to discuss this is US climate envoy John Kerry.  Also on today's show: One of the world's top Russia historians and authors, Simon Sebag Montefiore; journalist Judith Warner. To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad...

In perhaps the most anticipated Victory Day parade in recent memory, Russian military might was on full display this morning in Moscow. But President Vladimir Putin, while defiant, delivered a short speech without declaring victory in Ukraine, or formally declaring war and mass mobilization, or indeed any battlefield plans. Instead, Putin again defended his actions and again claimed that he had no...

The Philippines is bracing for an important presidential election on Monday. Way ahead in the polls is Ferdinand Marcos Jr., also known as Bongbong, and his running mate Sara Duterte. If those names sound familiar, they should: Marcos is the son of the Philippine dictator of the same name, who became notorious for corruption and human rights abuses, as well as his wife Imelda – and her massive sho...

If Roe v. Wade is overturned, more women may die – that is the blunt warning from the director of the CDC, as America grapples with the fallout from the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion. For California Congresswoman Jackie Speier, abortion is a lived experience. In 2011, she became the first member of Congress to share her story on the House floor. The impromptu moment happened after she heard a...

Americans on both sides of the abortion issue are fired up following the leak of a draft opinion that shows the Supreme Court looks likely to end a women's right to choose after nearly 50 years. The issue has long split the two political parties and the country, but how did it get this way? Francis Schaeffer is an evangelical scholar whose son Frank encouraged him to campaign against Roe v. Wade w...

The leak of a draft Supreme Court ruling overturning the Roe v. Wade abortion decision is sending shock waves throughout the United States. For decades, right-wing activists kept the fight against ‘Roe’ at the heart of America’s culture wars. Carrie Severino is the president of one such organization: the Judicial Crisis Network, a conservative legal advocacy group. She claims the draft ruling acco...

Evacuations are underway from the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, where dozens of civilians who were holed up in and around the Azovstal steel plant have emerged. But hundreds more remain, running out of food, water, and medicine. Mariupol’s mayor says the Russian forces are creating obstacles and making progress on evacuations difficult. Journalist Peter Pomerantsev is an expert on Russian p...

Putin is doubling down on Ukraine’s Donbas region, and the Pentagon says Moscow’s shift in strategy may be working for them. Their apparent advances on the battlefield come after Putin’s initial assault on the north two months ago was blunted by the Ukrainians in a show of force that surprised the world. Russian investigative journalist Andrei Soldatov has been taking a close look at Russia’s fail...

As Russia shifts its strategy in Ukraine, so is the US shifting its tone and upping its urgency. President Biden asked Congress today for an additional $33 billion in aid, more than twice the amount he approved just last month. For more on this and how the war might end, Christiane speaks with former US officials Ivo Daalder and Evelyn Farkas.  Also in today's episode: Former French President Fran...

Today the heights of Washington paid tribute to a titan of American diplomacy, as presidents and diplomats past and present gathered at the funeral of Madeleine Albright, the first female secretary of state. Instrumental in leading the U.S. and NATO allies to ending the genocide in Bosnia, she was the one who termed America the indispensable nation. Active and incisive to the last, in February - j...

The midterm elections are just months away, and right on cue the culture wars are raging. Michigan Democratic lawmaker Mallory McMorrow found herself in the middle of this pitched battle after defending the LGBTQ community. A Republican colleague accused her of wanting to “groom and sexualize” children. McMorrow's blistering response on the floor of the state senate has been viewed over 15 million...

Emmanuel Macron is the first French president in two decades to win re-election, comfortably beating his hard right challenger Marine Le Pen in the second round this weekend. Despite Macron's victory, Le Pen -- who has ties to, and sympathies with -- Vladimir Putin -- herself declared a great victory last night. For more on this, Christiane speaks in Paris with Laurence Haïm, a French journalist w...

We mark Earth Day with a special program, following efforts to combat climate change in the present and digging into why it’s taken so long to take action in the past. We begin in Chile, which has a brand new government with a serious climate agenda. Christiane discusses this with Chilean climate scientist turned environment minister Maisa Rojas. Then we welcome Dan Edge, producer of a new, three-...

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in India for a two day visit, some 5,000 miles from home – but it seems he can’t outrun the accelerating fallout from his ‘Partygate’ scandal. Today, the House of Commons launched a formal investigation into whether Johnson misled parliament about breaking his very own Covid-19 laws. This as Johnson kicks up a fresh controversy by announcing a plan to offload asy...

Clashes with Palestinians in Jerusalem have deepened a political crisis in Israel. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s fragile ruling coalition lost its one seat majority earlier this month when a member of his own party defected, and now it faces a new mutiny: the Arab Ra’am party has suspended its membership in the coalition to protest the government’s handling of the clashes in Jerusalem. And rock...

President Biden has implored western allies to stand up to Putin’s aggression in a call with partners today. It comes as both Ukraine and Russia declare that the battle of battles has begun, for the eastern Donbas region. But is the west getting enough material support to Ukraine in this crucial moment? Christiane speaks with President Zelensky’s chief diplomatic advisor, Igor Zhovkva.  Also on to...

Russian missile strikes continue even around Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and the western city of Lviv, as Ukrainian officials say Moscow has completed its regroup and is preparing to launch the expected offensive in the east. At least seven civilians – including a child – were killed in Lviv this morning. For the latest, Christiane speaks with the deputy mayor of Lviv, Andriy Moskalenko.  Also on today...

Those two words -- "never again" -- have echoed through history as a promise to the dead and a warning to the living. Never again will we allow atrocities to be committed with impunity. Never again will the rest of the world just stand by and watch. But now, Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked war in Ukraine is testing that promise and the West’s will to stop him. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is...

Today's episode begins as Christiane interviews Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, who sees Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, amid separatist rumblings in the Balkans, as a threat and worries about her own country's sovereignty. Next, a special report from Nima Elbagir in Kharkiv, where Russian forces are launching the next phase of their invasion -- the war for Donbas in the east. Then, correspondent B...

President Biden is up against it trying to make his economic case to a nation reeling from inflation exacerbated by rising energy prices due to the war in Ukraine. Is the political will there to maintain the pressure on Vladimir Putin? Joining the show to answer those thorny questions is Jared Bernstein, a top economic adviser in the Biden administration.  Also on today's episode: A.J. Baime, auth...