From COP30 to Ukraine: Power, Resistance, and Resilience

Summary

Podcast Summary: Amanpour – "From COP30 to Ukraine: Power, Resistance, and Resilience"

Host: Christiane Amanpour, CNN International
Date: November 15, 2025

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Overview

This episode of Amanpour centers on global leadership, resilience, and the fight for justice—from climate negotiations at COP30 to war-torn Ukraine, cultural power in New York and London, and lessons in courage from history and politics. Christiane Amanpour interviews leading voices including Al Gore, Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, Ukrainian restaurateurs, and Dutch Holocaust survivor Selma van der Per, probing the intersections of power, culture, and survival.

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Key Segments and Insights

1. COP30, Climate Leadership, and US Absence

[03:12–10:38] Al Gore Interview

Highlights

• COP30’s Big Leadership Gap: Amanpour notes President Trump, President Xi, and Prime Minister Modi—leaders from the world’s biggest polluters—skipped the summit. Al Gore was the only present/former US executive at the talks.
• Al Gore’s Disappointment:

  "It's disappointing, of course, that the present administration has turned its back on the climate crisis." (Al Gore, 03:29)

• Trump’s continued alignment with fossil fuel interests is condemned by Gore, who notes, "He is following through on that and even doing some things that go far beyond what they want." (03:32)
• Optimism and Warnings:
  • Gore expresses cautious optimism, citing global progress:

    "93% of all the new electricity generation installed...last year...was renewable, solar and wind." (Al Gore, 04:26)

  • But he insists, "We're in danger of crossing some very dangerous negative tipping points." (Al Gore, 04:11)
• Gore Responds to Bill Gates’ Comments:

  "It was disappointing, and to some it was surprising...The only person who gave Bill Gates a rave review for his about face on climate was Donald Trump." (Al Gore, 05:53)

• America’s Waning Climate Leadership/China Pulls Ahead:
  • China’s green tech exports now surpass the US’ fossil fuel exports—a strategic shift with huge economic implications.

  • "We're seeing this transition away from fossil fuels...these exciting new technologies...create three times as many jobs..." (Al Gore, 08:00)

• 2025 Election Results:
  Gore interprets recent Democratic victories as rebukes of Trump-era policies and a hopeful sign for upcoming Congressional elections.

  "It was a surprisingly huge landslide against all of the candidates Donald Trump was for...people in the elections last week sent a very powerful message." (Al Gore, 09:39) "He says up is down, black is white, the climate crisis is a hoax." (Al Gore, 09:44)

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2. Broadway Reimagined – Waiting for Godot with Keanu Reeves & Alex Winter

[11:49–19:33] Interview Segment

Highlights

• Why 'Godot,' Why Now?
  • Reeves and Winter bring existential classic to Manhattan, drawing on the play’s themes of meaning and absurdity.

  • "It is a play about two very close and old friends...trying to find a reason to live and survive...interrogates the questions of meaning and life and spirituality and friendship..." (Alex Winter, 12:32)

  • "And it's a comedy." (Keanu Reeves, 12:55)

  • "And it's a tragedy." (Alex Winter, 12:56)

  • "It's a tragic comedy." (Keanu Reeves, 12:58)

• Playful Banter – Sample Dialogue:
  (Cast quote playful Godot insults, 13:12–13:25)
• Exploring the Refugee Experience:
  • Winter connects the characters’ sense of exile to the refugee experience:

    "There is a refugee component to who we are in the world that we live in..." (Alex Winter, 13:49)

  • The play’s resonance with modern issues—autocracy, surveillance, and exclusion of refugees—feels urgent in today’s world.

  • "It speaks to autocracy and fascism and state violence and surveillance. I mean, this stuff is in the text, so you can't not feel it." (Alex Winter, 17:08)

• Art as Response to Crisis:
  • Amanpour recalls Susan Sontag’s wartime Sarajevo staging as “doing something tangible,” referencing Godot’s potential as resistance.

  • "I was in Sarajevo in 93 when Susan Sontag put on Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo, under siege...her way of pitching in..." (Christiane Amanpour, 18:00)

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3. Violence in the West Bank – Olive Harvest Under Attack

[19:35–23:25] Special Report

Highlights

• Palestinian Olive Growers Targeted:
  • Hundreds of attacks by Israeli settlers documented during the harvest season. Latest outrage: mosque arson, livestock attacks, and beatings.

  • "We're here in the occupied west bank where dozens of Israeli settlers stormed this dairy distribution facility, setting several trucks on fire..." (CNN Reporter, 20:44)

• Palestinian Voices:

  • "It's not confidence. It's not confidence. We hope that doesn't happen again...there's no guarantees." (Eugene Korolev, 21:51)

• UN Records and Growing Impunity:
  • Over 264 attacks in October alone, the highest since 2006.

  • "This speaks to a growing problem of impunity for these settlers." (CNN Reporter, 22:04)

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4. Soft Power and Ukrainian Identity – Cooking Through Conflict

[24:32–32:01] Interview: Eugene Korolev (Chef) & Paulina Sichova (Founder), Sino Restaurant

Highlights

• A Ukrainian Restaurant Born from War:
  • Chef Eugene Korolev left his newly opened restaurant in Dnipro to fight; the team pivoted to feed the army before relocating to London.
  • Founder Sichova’s vision: to challenge Soviet stereotypes and reveal the complexity of Ukrainian cuisine.

  • "We want to break this idea of what Ukrainian food is...because Ukrainian food is actually food that has been...cooking for centuries...sophisticated. It's elegant. It's layered..." (Paulina Sichova, 25:31)

• Life on the Frontlines:

  "Sometimes when you're just like lying on a position or like holding position...Of course we are joking...if I'm chef. So I will tell...funny stories from the kitchen...so that was like normal life behind what's going on." (Eugene Korolev, 28:16)

• Adaptation & Resilience:
  • Sichova reflects on Ukrainians’ ability to adapt:

    "You look at Ukraine, people adapt, People still live, people keep going. And that's partly very scary because...we as a human beings adapt to the most terrifying things. And partly it gives us power." (Paulina Sichova, 29:02)

• Celebrating Victory through Food:
  • Sino is honored in the Michelin Guide—"That's a victory," says Amanpour, given Russia’s claims Ukraine “doesn’t exist.”

  • "That's what we are trying to say with the cuisine...we can destroy Russia propaganda and show them and tell them, look, you...are not what you are telling about. And we are much more stronger." (Eugene Korolev, 31:14)

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5. Remembering Selma van der Per – Resisting Fear and Fascism

[32:17–36:16] Archive Conversation

Highlights

• Holocaust Survivor, Dutch Resistance Hero:
  • Van der Per recounts her will to survive:

    "I didn't want the Germans to have the satisfaction of killing me." (Selma van der Per, 32:17)

  • On life under constant threat:

    "You forget about fear because I was busy as well, like I am now. You can't live in constant fear. Even fear is something to which you become accustomed." (Selma van der Per, 33:30)

• Hope and Loss:

  • "So you try to do your best to survive...I was beaten once unconscious...the food and the drinks we got was terrible or hardly anything." (Selma van der Per, 35:02)

  • On irreconcilable loss:

    "Well, I haven't reconciled with that at all. I think of them every day, every night...I try not to because...you can't make it undone. But I can't help it." (Selma van der Per, 35:41)

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6. Jacinda Ardern and Redefining Leadership

[36:16–End] Archive Clip

Highlights

• Empathy in Power:
  • Amanpour describes Ardern as a symbol of "compassionate leadership."

  • "I do think you can be both strong and compassionate. I do think success is not just about economic but about your social indicators of success." (Jacinda Ardern, 37:39)

• Personal Integrity:
  • Ardern on stepping down:

    "You cannot and should not do that job unless you have a full tank. I no longer have enough in the tank to do the job." (Amanpour quoting Ardern, 37:59)

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Notable Quotes and Moments

• Al Gore on American Climate Leadership:

  "China is now exporting to other countries more green technology...far exceeds the exports from the United States to the rest of the world of all of the fossil fuels." (07:59)

• Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter’s Godot Back-and-Forth:

  "Finish a phrase, I tell you." (Alex Winter, 13:15)
  "Finish your own. Moron. That's the idea. Let's abuse each other." (Keanu Reeves, 13:16)

• Paulina Sichova on Ukrainian Adaptation:

  "We as human beings adapt to the most terrifying things. And partly it gives us the power." (29:02)

• Selma van der Per on Survival:

  "I didn't want the Germans to have the satisfaction of killing me." (32:17)
  "You can't live in constant fear. Even fear is something to which you become accustomed." (33:30)

• Jacinda Ardern’s Leadership Philosophy:

  "I do think you can be both strong and compassionate." (37:39)

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Timeline of Major Segments

| Time | Segment / Guest(s) | Highlights | |-----------|----------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------| | 03:12–10:38 | COP30 & Climate Leadership – Al Gore | US absence, China’s surge, warning/tipping points | | 11:49–19:33 | Broadway: Waiting for Godot – Keanu Reeves & Alex Winter | Absurdity, refugee resonance, modern parallels | | 19:35–23:25 | Settler Violence in West Bank – Jeremy Diamond | Olive harvest, Palestinian suffering, impunity | | 24:32–32:01 | Ukrainian Cuisine as Soft Power – Sino | Adapting during war, identity, Michelin guide | | 32:17–36:16 | Selma van der Per: Holocaust Memory/Resistance | Survival, hope, trauma, historical reflection | | 36:16–End | Jacinda Ardern: Leadership & Empathy | Redefining power, emotional toll of leadership |

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Tone & Style

Amanpour approaches guests with direct, incisive questions, often linking the personal with the political. The tone is informed and deeply human, striking a balance between urgency, empathy, and hope. The guests—ranging from politicians to artists to survivors—speak candidly, often reflecting on resilience, ethical leadership, and the universal struggle for dignity and meaning.

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For Listeners

This episode delivers a powerful mix of timely analysis, personal storytelling, and historical witness—offering hope, warning, and inspiration for those grappling with today’s biggest challenges in climate, conflict, identity, and leadership.

Transcript

[Christiane Amanpour]

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[Christiane Amanpour]

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Amanpour Hour. Here's where we're headed this week from the COP summit in Brazil. The former US vice president and Nobel laureate Al Gore on US climate leadership that Bill Gates 180 and what he thinks of the trouncing Democrats just gave Trump at the latest elections.

[Al Gore]

Well, people who go into the grocery store and look at the prizes, they believe their eyes rather than the falsehoods that Donald Trump continues to put out.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Then front row at one of Broadway's most hyped and most expensive shows.

[Alex Winter]

Ceremonious Ape.

[Keanu Reeves]

Punctilious Pig.

[Alex Winter]

Finish your phrase, I tell you.

[Keanu Reeves]

Finish your own, moron. That's the idea. Let's abuse each other.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter tell me why they are reuniting to Wait for Godot. Plus, the devastating attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. We have a special report. Also ahead, a taste of Ukrainian independence via the kitchen as we visit the new London restaurant whose head chef wrote recipes as he was fighting on his country's front lines. And remembering Selma van der Per. From my archive, my conversation with the Dutch Holocaust survivor and resistance fighter, how she fought through her fears and never gave up against the Nazis.

[Selma van der Per]

I didn't want the Germans to have the satisfaction of killing me.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Welcome to the program, everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour. In London this week, indigenous protesters against deforestation made their voices heard in Belem, Brazil, which was the site of the UN's major climate summit. Dozens of demonstrators forced their way into the COP30 venue, clashing with security guards and carrying signs shouting that their land is not for sale. It's a signal of something. We know tackling climate change and protecting the planet is an enormous emotional and logistical challenge. And what it requires is real leadership. But the world's most powerful people are no shows. Presidents Trump and XI weren't there. Neither was India's prime minister Narendra Modi, all of them big. In fact, the major polluters and the White House is doubling down on fossil fuels. One well known American, though, trying to fill that leadership gap is the former US Vice President Al Gore. One of the earliest politicians to sound the alarm on climate change. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in part for his prescient documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. Vice President Al Gore, welcome to our program.

[Al Gore]

Thank you very much, Christian. I'm happy to be with you.

[Christiane Amanpour]

What does it feel like to be the only vice president, the only member of an American administration, even if it's passed at the COP talks? Because this administration didn't send anybody, not the president, not the vice president, not even a technical team.

[Al Gore]

Well, it's disappointing, of course, that the present administration has turned its back on the climate crisis. During his campaign, Donald Trump famously gathered a whole roomful of fossil fuel executives and said, basically, give me a billion dollars and I'll do whatever you want. And he is following through on that and even doing some things that go far beyond what they want.

[Christiane Amanpour]

So can I ask you sort of the big picture, Are you optimistic or neutral or pessimistic? Is there a path forward that you can see?

[Al Gore]

Oh, yes, very definitely. There's a very promising path forward. And I think we are going to win this struggle. The question is whether we'll win it in time. We're in danger of crossing some very dangerous negative tipping points. But let me give you some examples briefly. You know, some people are surprised when you ask the question, how much of all the new electricity generation installed everywhere in the world last year, how much of it was renewable, solar and wind? The answer is 93%. And electric vehicles are fast following as a second big Trend. In September, 30% of all the new cars sold in the world were electric vehicles. And that is ramping up so quickly. He did it before the last time he withdrew from the Paris agreement. Following that, solar doubled in the US Electric vehicles doubled in the US Climate finance increased dramatically. But we need to accelerate the pace in order to minimize the huge dangers that we're encountering as we continue to put 175 million tons of global warming pollution into the sky.

[Christiane Amanpour]

I want to ask you, when even people like Bill Gates, who's put his money where his mouth is for decades, you know, on health and on climate, puts out a memo about Cop 30, quote, It's a chance to refocus on, on the metric that should count even more than emissions and temperature change that's improving lives. He said Climate change is a serious problem, but it won't be the end of civilization. Temperature is not the best way to measure our progress on climate. What's your response to that?

[Al Gore]

Well, yeah, it was disappointing, and to some it was surprising. The only person who gave Bill Gates a rave review for his about face on climate was Donald Trump. He cheered loudly and said gates is on Donald Trump's side now. It's also quite telling, Cristian, that when Gates says we have to choose between climate and health, that the same day that he said that the highly respected Lancet Commission, the most authoritative body in the world on health, pointed out that this is the biggest health threat. So it was a very misguided and puzzling in some ways. And I don't know, he didn't respond to the rave review from Donald Trump, so I guess maybe that's what he was shooting for.

[Christiane Amanpour]

I remember first meeting you, first interviewing you when you represented the Senate delegation at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, just before you were tapped to be vice president. And I know all those calls were coming through to you, but you wouldn't answer any of my very pointed questions. But here's what you did tell me about American leadership on this issue. Just take a listen.

[Al Gore]

I believe deeply that the United States must be in a leadership position in this post Cold War era. And all of this mishandling of our country's relationship to the rest of the world here at the Earth Summit by the White House with its divisions, all of that has hurt our country's ability to be a leader on these important issues. And we should be. We have the record as a country to do it. If we just stop backtracking on environmental.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Protection, you were really prescient. That bit stands the test of time. But, you know, so the question is if America. Well, you rate America where it is in terms of leadership right now, because for all I know, the Chinese are accelerating way beyond America on the green technology.

[Al Gore]

Yes. And it's tragic that Donald Trump and his fossil fuel polluter allies are shooting America in both feet, metaphorically, where the economy is concerned. You know, here's a new statistic that's just out, Cristiane. China is now exporting to other countries more green technology like electric vehicles and windmills and solar. The value of their green tech exports now far exceeds the exports from the United States to the rest of the world of all of the fossil fuels, all of the coal and gas and oil. And we're seeing this transition away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy and electric vehicles and batteries and these exciting new technologies that are pollution free, they create three times as many jobs per dollar spent compared to the old dirty fossil fuels. And that's where the economic future is and it's aligned with the future we have to build for a clean environment.

[Christiane Amanpour]

You talked about the economy and clearly it was the economy that motivated voters in the latest off year elections just last week and brought a very different message to the fore, which is we want change. How significant and strategically important do you think these elections, like Mamdani's win or the two governors in New Jersey and Virginia and Gavin Newsom in California? These were big wins with heavy margins for the Democrats.

[Al Gore]

Yeah, it was a surprisingly huge landslide against all of the candidates Donald Trump was for and in favor of all the candidates that oppose what Donald Trump is trying to do. He hasn't solved inflation. He seems to think that he can take charge of the reality that we see with our own eyes. He says up is down, black is white, the climate crisis is a hoax. And I think people in the elections last week sent a very powerful message. What it means for the midterm congressional elections next year remains to be seen. But I will say this. In the past, when the off year elections for governor in Virginia and New Jersey went one way, the congressional elections the following year went that same way.

[Christiane Amanpour]

All right, Vice President Algore from Belem, thank you so much indeed for joining us.

[Al Gore]

Thank you, Christiane. Thanks for all that you do.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Coming up next, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter back together on Broadway. I talked to them about waiting for Godot and finding meaning in the meaningless. And later in the program, the Ukrainian restaurant taking aim with soft power, the head chef who found inspiration while fighting on the front lines.

[Claire Duffy]

I'm CNN tech reporter Claire Duffy. This week on the podcast Terms of Service, we are celebrating a special milestone here for Terms of Service. One year of demystifying technology, talking about how people can engage with new tool without getting played by them. Amazon, just this week that we're recording, announced plans to lay off 14,000 employees in part because it's trying to slim down its workforce because it thinks that AI is going to do more of the work in the future. I think we'll look back on this year as a really pivotal moment in terms of the way that AI is going to reshape the world. Listen to CNN's terms of service with me, Claire Duffy, wherever you get your podcasts.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Welcome back to the program. It's the play where nothing happens twice, as the saying goes but for more than 70 years, waiting for Godot has held up a mirror to the absurdities of life, politics and power. Now, Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter. Yes, Bill and Ted, to those who know, are bringing Samuel Beckett's existential masterpiece to Broadway in a stark new production. Two men wait for meaning in a world that offers none. I asked Reeves and Winter, why now? It's an existential question. Welcome to the program.

[Keanu Reeves]

Hello.

[Alex Winter]

Thank you for having us.

[Christiane Amanpour]

It's a great pleasure for someone who's never seen. How would you describe this play?

[Alex Winter]

I mean, it is a play about two very close and old friends who are trapped in an indeterminate location in an indeterminate time, who are trying to find a reason to live and survive. And it's a play that interrogates sort of the questions of meaning and life and spirituality and friendship and many, many other things.

[Keanu Reeves]

And it's a comedy.

[Alex Winter]

And it's a tragedy.

[Keanu Reeves]

It's a tragic comedy.

[Alex Winter]

It is indeed. You must have had a vision.

[Al Gore]

What?

[Christiane Amanpour]

You must have had a vision.

[Keanu Reeves]

No need to shout.

[Alex Winter]

Do you?

[Christiane Amanpour]

Oh, pardon me.

[Alex Winter]

Carry on. No, no, after you.

[Keanu Reeves]

No, no, you first.

[Alex Winter]

I interrupted you.

[Keanu Reeves]

On the contrary.

[Alex Winter]

Ah. Ceremonious ape.

[Keanu Reeves]

Punctilious pig.

[Alex Winter]

Finish a phrase, I tell you.

[Keanu Reeves]

Finish your own. Moron. That's the idea. Let's abuse each other.

[Al Gore]

Moron.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Vermin.

[Alex Winter]

Abortion.

[Al Gore]

Morphian.

[Alex Winter]

Sewer rat.

[Keanu Reeves]

Curate.

[Alex Winter]

Cretan critic.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Well, it's all getting big laughs from the audience. But what does the scene tell us about your relationship? Well, at least the relationship between Vladimir and Estragon.

[CNN Reporter]

What.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Who are they to each other?

[Keanu Reeves]

I don't. Well, there's. There's love, companionship.

[Alex Winter]

History.

[Keanu Reeves]

History.

[Alex Winter]

And, you know, sense of surviving together and being together too long. Fear of mortality. I think I'm afraid of your health and you're afraid of mine. And, you know, we're refugees. I think it's sort of quite clear we've. The things that the text gives you is there is a. A refugee component to who we are in the world that we live in, we have performed together. That's in the text. And those are things you can.

[Keanu Reeves]

I'm a philosopher and I'm kind of nature. You know what I mean? Like being in philosophy. I think that there's a kind of side. Two sides of a coin, of a way of being a points of view.

[Alex Winter]

Yeah. You're rooted to the earth and my head is sort of up there. Yeah. Literally.

[Christiane Amanpour]

We have a nice big shot of the theater. In fact, we're looking at it right now. And behind you is that Tunne, which was clear in the clip that we. That we played, because you were in that tunnel. I want to know what that represents. But I love this comment from one of the critics. It was as if you were circling the drain of life, waiting for a fatal flush that's waiting for Godot and Vladimir and Estragon. So I just found that really visual. But tell me about.

[Alex Winter]

They didn't like the play?

[Christiane Amanpour]

No, they said a lot of other good things. I just thought it was very descriptive. But what about that tunnel?

[Keanu Reeves]

I mean, we love. I mean, I guess there's the practical side of performing in it, but I think also just the symbolic prompt, this symbolic invitation of trying to. You know, you were speaking about the creative pause, you know, the. You know, and sharing that idea and the quote of that. But the pause of, like, contemplating, what is it? How does it. What does it mean to you? How does it affect. What does it make you think of? 1. Think of, you know.

[Alex Winter]

Yeah, yeah. It creates ambiguity, but for an actor, it actually creates specific parameters that are quite constrained. And those are useful because these are two characters who are trapped in time. They're trapped with each other. They're trapped with their thoughts, and the audience is trapped. And it creates a kind of a.

[Keanu Reeves]

Literal trap and a foci.

[Al Gore]

Right.

[Keanu Reeves]

It made us be very specific. Yeah, in a way.

[Alex Winter]

And it's also a stage, which Jamie is leaning into. It also looks somewhat like a vaudeville clamshell. And there we are with their bowler hats, and we play air guitar, and we're two characters who have done physical comedy together, just as the characters in the play have. And there's a kind of a vaudeville proscenium aspect to it as well. So it's a very clever design. I'm very taken by what they came up with.

[Christiane Amanpour]

So you just mentioned air guitar. That's a. I assume a deliberate reference back to. Back to Bill and Ted. I don't know. Um.

[Selma van der Per]

H. How.

[Christiane Amanpour]

How did that come up? Does the audience recognize it?

[Alex Winter]

Oh, yes. Oh, yes, they recognize it.

[Christiane Amanpour]

I mean, hugely popular. But listen, I want to ask you something, because you've twice said, Alex, that this is about refugees. You are refugees. And as you know, certainly in your country and certainly in, you know, in the. In the west right now, refugees are demonized. They're, you know, deported. They're shut out. And I just wondered how that resonates with you today, performing this in New York right now.

[Alex Winter]

You know, Keanu and I have talked about this quite a bit, and we've talked to a lot of people who have seen the play or produced the play at times of. Of great strife or civic unrest or war. And we're very happy that this play doesn't specifically kind of book bracket the times that we're in, which we feel would diminish the scope of the play. But of course, it speaks to autocracy and fascism and state violence and surveillance. I mean, this stuff is in the text, so you can't not feel it. And I think whenever the play is put on, especially when the times are fraught, which, let's face it, most times are fraught for someone, it's going to be felt quite deeply in that way. And of course we feel that. Of course we do.

[Keanu Reeves]

We've lost our rights.

[Alex Winter]

We got rid of them. It's right there in the text.

[Christiane Amanpour]

I was in Sarajevo in 93 when Susan Sontag put on Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo, under siege by the Bosnian Serb forces. And she said then it was her way of pitching in or doing something tangible. Do you feel at all. At all like that in doing this now, Keanu? I don't know. Is there something. It is such a famous play and it has so much meaning, even though it's kind of meaningless.

[Keanu Reeves]

Myself and Alex and Michael, Patrick Thornton and Brandon Dearden, the four of us, Vladimir Estragon, Lucky Pozzo, we huddle up before each performance, and often part of that huddling up is speaking about the audience and the reactions that each of us are getting individually from people, friends, family, from strangers about their experience of watching the play. And, you know, it's. I was crying, I was laughing. I don't know what's going on. It's.

[Alex Winter]

I've seen the play four times and I get something different from it every time I see it.

[Keanu Reeves]

And so this kind of feedback is worthwhile. It's why. And we speak about why are we here, what are we doing, and the relationship between the play, us performing it, and the audience. And there seems to be a wonderful exchange.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Wish we could talk more. Congratulations to both of you. Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, thank you so much for joining us.

[Keanu Reeves]

Thank you.

[Alex Winter]

Thank you.

[Christiane Amanpour]

In a moment, the rising settler violence against Palestinians, where there's no ceasefire on the occupied west bank, torching their villages and wrecking their livelihoods.

[CNN Reporter]

What confidence do you have that this won't happen again?

[Eugene Korolev]

It's not confidence. It's not confidence.

[Selma van der Per]

We.

[Eugene Korolev]

We hope that doesn't happen again.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Welcome back. In the occupied west bank, the olive harvest is more than a season. It's an Economic lifeline for, for Palestinians and a historic ritual deeply rooted in culture and tradition. But this year, for many of their families, it's marred by violence and loss. Palestinian olive pickers have faced hundreds of attacks by Israeli settlers in the last month. And now outrage is growing after an arson attack on a mosque there condemned by the Palestinian Ministry of Religious affairs as a heinous crime. CNN's Jeremy diamond reports on the violence which has kept up a pace while all eyes have been on Gaza.

[CNN Reporter]

This is the aftermath of an attack by Israeli settlers. We're here in the occupied west bank where dozens of Israeli settlers stormed this dairy distribution facility, setting several trucks on fire. You can see this is one of those trucks that was set on fire by those Israeli settlers. It is completely burned down to its core here. We're told that dozens of Israeli settlers descended on this facility in the northern part of the occupied West Bank. They came through this gate right over here and coming over the walls of several other parts of this facility. All of these settlers were masked. Some of them were carrying clubs. I spoke with the owner of this facility and he made very clear that he believes this was an effort to intimidate him and and other Palestinians from expanding their businesses in the West Bank. I think it's just a message to.

[Eugene Korolev]

Scare us, to scare our employees, to not start, to not come and to try to enforce their reality on the ground.

[CNN Reporter]

What confidence do you have that this won't happen again?

[Eugene Korolev]

It's not confidence. It's not confidence. We hope that doesn't happen again. We're taking more matches, but we don't know. There's no guarantees.

[CNN Reporter]

Those settlers also descended on this Bedouin community right near that factory. And you can see that they also rampaged this area as well, setting fire to this place where the livestock feed was held and also terrorizing women and children who were in the home just up the hill. This is a part of a trend of a very violent month of October. The United nations has tracked more than 264 attacks by settlers against Palestinians just this month alone. And that is the highest number of attacks that they've tracked since they began following these numbers in 2006. Those settlers not only rampaged along this village, they actually beat several sheep here, killing four of them. And after that, we understand that several men went up this hill to try and get those sheep back to this village. And that is where those settlers then beat at least four Palestinians who had to go to the hospital for medical treatment. And this speaks to a growing problem of impunity for these settlers. It seems things are now reaching a point of saturation where even Israeli officials, who typically stay silent on matters of settler violence, are now also speaking out. Jeremy Dimon, CNN Bait lid the West Bank.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Now, after a break, a trip to one of London's hottest new restaurants. Whose chef thought up new recipes while on Ukraine's front lines?

[Claire Duffy]

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[Christiane Amanpour]

[e-mail] hey, fans, it's the king of Christmas. If you're suffering from ornament overload, it's a little messy in here.

[Alex Winter]

If you have blow molds on the.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Brain, what I need in my life.

[Alex Winter]

Right there, you might just be a holiday hoarder.

[Christiane Amanpour]

I'm a collector.

[CNN Reporter]

We'll use the C word instead.

[Al Gore]

If it's kind of ugly, why don't we get rid of it? Would you get rid of an ugly child?

[Christiane Amanpour]

I knew you were crazy about Christmas. Not this crazy.

[Alex Winter]

Courting for the holidays.

[Christiane Amanpour]

All new Tuesday night at 9 on HGTV. Welcome back. This week, Russia made serious gains inside Ukraine, pushing towards the key Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk and leaving Ukrainians in the cold and dark by constant attacks on the energy infrastructure. In our letter from London this week, how one Ukrainian restaurant is fighting back plate by plate. Sino opened its doors earlier this year in the very fashionable London Notting Hill neighborhood. But its origins couldn't be more humble. Its head chef, Eugene Korolev, found inspiration while serving on the battlefield. It's an extraordinary story and as Chef Korolev and Sino's founder Paulina Sichova told me, a demonstration of their homeland, soft power. Paulina and Eugene, welcome to our program. Thank you for having us at your restaurant. What is it that you want to tell about Ukrainian food?

[Claire Duffy]

What we want to break is this idea of what Ukrainian food is, because the world and, you know, even Ukrainian people, they have this perception that Ukrainian traditional food is the food that comes from Soviet Union, which we really want to move away from because Ukrainian food is actually food that has been, you know, cooking for centuries and there's history and it's actually sophisticated. It's elegant, it's layered, it's much More than you know what we know about.

[Christiane Amanpour]

So your story is actually really interesting because you were a chef, you worked outside Ukraine for a while, then you went back to Ukraine and you had a restaurant in Dnipro. Correct. What was that like? And what happened when the war started? How did your restaurant get transformed? And then you yourself went to the front?

[Eugene Korolev]

Yeah, we just opened restaurant in December 2021, so three months before the war was started. And yet from the day one, I decided to join the army, and we decided to transform the restaurant and cook it for, like, for army, for hospitals, for National Guard. Because at that moment, the country was really, like, united, and people was like, really, like, wanted to show how strong they are in every aspect.

[Christiane Amanpour]

How did you meet Eugene? Did you know the restaurant in Dnipro?

[Claire Duffy]

No. No. So when the war had started, that's when the idea of restaurant came to my mind.

[Christiane Amanpour]

And that's why that's a weird time to think about starting a restaurant.

[Claire Duffy]

So actually, you know, the night when the war started, I actually just had my first baby. And I'm never gonna forget that night when, you know, when you see sitting and feeding the baby and the world just went upside down. And that's when I think, as every Ukrainian at that time, you have this. I wouldn't say a mission, but a feeling of doing something. You have to somehow say, fought it there. And I've always been involved in some way with Ukraine, even while, you know, lived almost like 15 years here. So. But somehow my life always touched Ukraine. And that's where this idea. I've started thinking this must be a way. And I'm very passionate foodie. And back in the day, there wasn't a thing as Ukrainian restaurants in London, you know, and even the understanding of what Ukrainian food is, everyone would put it in a basket of Eastern European food.

[Christiane Amanpour]

So you were in the meantime on the front lines. That must have been pretty scary. And yet I've read about how you were lying in trenches and you would pick a little bit of a herb and do a little tasting, you know, when you weren't firing weapons or doing defensive maneuvers.

[Eugene Korolev]

And the life on the front line. I mean, sometimes when you're just like lying on a position or like holding position and you're just keeping watching something anyway, it's like kind of life and will not like stopping our life there. So, of course we are joking. We are. We're talking about something. And yeah, there was one thing like what I will. What I supposed to talk about if I'm chef. So I Will tell everything like my funny stories from the kitchen and what, like how looks this herbs or how they taste like or what's the combination. But so that was like normal life behind what's going on. Yeah.

[Christiane Amanpour]

When you think of what's happening back home now, what are your feelings? Nearly four years, the war.

[Claire Duffy]

Well, you know, you look at Ukraine, people adapt, People still live, people keep going. And that's partly very scary because you know us, we as a human beings adapt to the most terrifying things. And partly it gives us the power. You know, we see how strong Ukrainians are and what they do, even within, you know, those quieter scary times. So, yeah, of course we want this terrifying moment to be as over as possible as soon as possible. However, we also see power in what's happening right now.

[Christiane Amanpour]

And Eugene, what do you think about the way the war is going right now?

[Eugene Korolev]

Well, we still have a lot of friends there and family. And of course, sometimes you are thinking, am I doing right or should I like do something other. I mean, come back to Ukraine. And then we, as Polina said, I think we took this mission to show not only Ukrainian cuisine on a high level and use it as a soft power, but we decided to support all, like Ukrainian craft makers, suppliers. So everything what we can order, not from here, we are doing it from there. And I think yesterday was one of their small achievements for us. And there was. Yeah, there was a news yesterday that we. We got to a Michelin guide. There was.

[Christiane Amanpour]

You're in the Michelin guide?

[Al Gore]

Yeah.

[Eugene Korolev]

Yes.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Fantastic.

[Eugene Korolev]

And there was. Yeah, we were. We've been selected. So now we are there. Not too many Ukrainian restaurants, are there? There is one in Chicago called Analia and we are at number two.

[Christiane Amanpour]

That's amazing. Congratulations. And I wonder whether you think as you're telling me this, as you know Vladimir Putin and the Russians say Ukraine doesn't exist, that it's just a subplot of mother Russia. So that's a victory.

[Eugene Korolev]

That's what we are trying to say with the cuisine, with what we are doing here. There is a lot of things about Ukraine, about designers, about crafts makers and the world, I think, didn't recognize it yet. How beautiful things we can do in Ukraine, how beautiful food we can cook here in Ceno. And yeah, there is a lot of stuff like this. And this is one of the ways how we can destroy Russia propaganda and show them and tell them, look, you. You are not what you are telling about. And we are much more stronger. And we will show you and we will.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Yeah, that's the Ukrainian fighting spirit that we've got used to. Eugene Paulina, thank you so much indeed.

[Eugene Korolev]

Thank you.

[Claire Duffy]

Thank you.

[Christiane Amanpour]

It is a war for the very survival of a nation from a neighbour that wants to destroy it. And up next, we remember a Holocaust survivor and Dutch resistance fighter, Selmer van de Per. No words for her courage.

[Selma van der Per]

I've had some very horrible experiences there too. But I survived. I wanted to. I didn't want the Germans to have the satisfaction of killing me.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Welcome back. This week, across the world, nations have been remembering the fallen and those still serving. From Armistice Day here in the United Kingdom to Veterans Day in the United States. So from my archive, we take time to remember a woman who risked her life in the fight against the murderous Nazi fascism. The extraordinary Selma van der Per. A Jewish Dutch resistance legend. She survived the notorious women's concentration camp at Ravensbruck and she fought back. She died recently at the grand old age of 103. But when she was just a sprightly 98, she told me why you cannot live in fear. I'm going to get to the prison in a moment, but first I'd like to ask you to read on page 76 in your book there, the passage about fear, about how you know fear was everywhere, but you had to put it to the back of your mind. Well, you forget.

[Selma van der Per]

Yeah, you forget about fear because I was busy as well, like I was now. When you're busy, you're able to push the things where you don't need. You can't live in constant fear. Even fear is something to which you become accustomed. Quite true. And the job, the Resistance job, becomes like any other job every day. I did things that put my life at risk. I didn't allow the fear to overwhelm me. The desire to thwart the Nazis and help people in danger was stronger.

[Christiane Amanpour]

What was your experience in Ravensbruck?

[Selma van der Per]

Well, I've had some very horrible experiences there too. But I survived. I didn't want the Germans to have the satisfaction of killing me, of having me dead. So I did everything to stay alive. I was quite lucky in a way that I became the secretary of one of the chiefs in Siemens factory. I had to work in the Siemens.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Factory, the big German industrial.

[Selma van der Per]

Which is now famous for all the kitchen stuff.

[Christiane Amanpour]

You said that to survive you had to maintain hope.

[Selma van der Per]

So you try to do your best to survive. It was difficult at sometimes. I was beaten once unconscious when I couldn't get off the loo because my tummy was always upset, you see, and because the food and the drinks we got was terrible or hardly anything.

[Christiane Amanpour]

When you came out, you realized eventually that your mother had not survived. Your father had not and nor had your younger sister. Two older brothers had, and they had come here to England. How did you reconcile? How did you process their loss?

[Selma van der Per]

Well, I haven't reconciled with that at all. I think of them every day, every night. Small things happen. And when I slice my bread in the morning for breakfast and I halve my slice of bread, I think of my mother when she buttered our bread. I can't help it. It comes into my mind. I try not to because I say to myself, it doesn't make any difference. You can't make it undone. But I can't help it. I think of them every day in that way.

[Christiane Amanpour]

She lost so much, even her own identity. She had to hide who she really was and could only reclaim her identity and her very name when the war was over. Her book is called My Name is Selma. When we come back. She led with empathy and changed what power looks like at the top in New Zealand. An intimate look inside Jacinda Ardern's rise and legacy in a new film Prime Minister and finally, imagining a different kind of leadership. Jacinda Ardern led New Zealand through crisis with empathy and strength, from the massacre at the Christchurch mosque to the pandemic. And she became a global symbol of compassionate leadership. Following her across seven years, the acclaimed new documentary Prime Minister takes an intimate look at her extraordinary political journey and the personal tol of power. I spoke to her in 2018, just after she won that election. What is the leadership rule book for you? Because people think that to be a prime minister, you have to be this way, this way, this way. But are you trying to sort of open up the leadership rule book? And if so, how? I do think it's time for us.

[Claire Duffy]

To reconsider whether or not we're meeting the expectations of the public and their.

[Christiane Amanpour]

Expectation, particularly of that new generation of voters. You know, they're less hierarchical, they're collaborative, they're wanting us to be constructive. And yet probably the old playbook when it comes to politics is that, you know, you succeed if you're seen as pretty ruthless. There's a lot of ego in politics. Measures of success are pretty basic. They're mostly aligned with economic markers. You know, I am determined to do things. I do think you can be both strong and compassionate. I do think success is not just about economic but about your social indicators of success. Ardern did do things differently up until her resignation in 2023, saying, quote, leading a country is the most privileged job anyone could ever have, but also the most challenging. You cannot and should not do that job unless you have a full tank. I no longer have enough in the tank to do the job. Justice and Prime Minister premieres tomorrow, Sunday, November 16th at 9pm Eastern and Pacific on CNN and the next day on the CNN app. That is all we have time for now, though. Don't forget, you can find all of our shows online as [e-mail] audio and on all other major platforms. I'm Cristiana Manpour in the London thank you for watching and I'll see you again next week. This week on the Assignment with Me, Audie Cornish. It's common to hear people, especially women, talking about having imposter syndrome, but I did not expect to hear that from a woman who was once a head of state.

[Claire Duffy]

You worry about being exposed.

[Christiane Amanpour]

You worry about failure. This is the Right Honorable Dame Jacinda Ardern, former prime minister of New Zealand. The last few years, she's been teaching a new generation about leadership at Harvard and at Oxford University's Blavatnik School of Government, where I met her for this conversation. In an era of strongman politics, what would a different kind of power even look like? Listen to the Assignment with Me, Audie Cornish. Streaming now on your favorite podcast, Applied.