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The Amanpour Hour
Interview With Former Hamas Hostage Evyatar David; The Trump Administration's Secretive Deportation Deals; Interview With Folk Singer Judy Collins; Bosnian Serb War Criminal Ratko Mladic Dies Behind Bars. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired August 29, 2026 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:00:37]
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to THE AMANPOUR HOUR. Here's where we're headed this week.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EVYATAR DAVID, FORMER HAMAS HOSTAGE: One hour, it can be fine and happy. And the second one I can remember is something from captivity and get flashbacks. And also I can wake up at night from nightmares.
GOLODRYGA: After more than two years held hostage by Hamas and almost a year since his release, Evyatar David speaks to me in his first international interview about the trauma that followed him home and the fight to rebuild his life.
Then --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I said, where we are going, tell me. And he said, I don't know, maybe Central Africa.
GOLODRYGA: Deported to one of the most dangerous nations on earth. CNN's Isobel Yeung speaks to the U.S. migrants dumped in the Central African Republic despite having no ties to the nation.
And --
DOLLY PARTON, MUSICIAN: I count my blessings more than I count my money.
GOLODRYGA: Remembering Dolly Parton. I speak to folk singer Judy Collins about working with the country music icon, Parton's remarkable talent and what made her so universally beloved.
Then Bosnian Serb war criminal Ratko Mladic dies behind bars. From Christiane's archives, when she came face to face with the butcher of Bosnia.
RATKO MLADIC, "BUTCHER OF BOSNIA": We'd be poor without the Muslims. It's good to have them around but in a smaller concentration.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: Welcome to the program, everyone. I'm Bianna Golodryga in New York, sitting in for Christiane.
They were the harrowing pictures that shocked the world. A young man, severely emaciated, being forced to dig his own grave in a tunnel beneath Gaza.
Evyatar David was at the Nova Music Festival, and among the 251 people kidnaped from Israel by Hamas on October 7th, 2023.
One of the last to be released, he spent more than two years in Hamas captivity before eventually being freed as part of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement last October.
Since then, he's been overcoming unimaginable hurdles and trauma as he rebuilds his life.
In his first international interview, Evyatar David spoke to me from his home in Kfar Saba, where we discussed what he endured and his extraordinary message of resilience.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: Evyatar, thank you so much for joining us today. You chose this moment for your first international interview since you were released from captivity after 738 days last October.
Of course, the world was shocked and horrified when Hamas released that propaganda video of you emaciated, food deprived, starved, forced to dig your own grave.
Now, almost a year later, you are home. You look amazing. But I know that you've said surviving captivity is one thing, but complete rehabilitation is a different battle. Where are you in that battle today?
DAVID: First of all, it's very complicated. Even myself, I'm not sure yet where I'm really going because, you know, all that thing, it never happened to me. And almost nobody had like a similar experience before.
So, it's new to me and to anybody here. And I'm trying to understand how to do like good rehab and how to help myself with all of this.
GOLODRYGA: What does a good day look like right now? And what does a bad day look like?
DAVID: It's not about days. It's about just -- it can surprise me at any time. One hour, I can be fine and happy. And the second one, I can remember something from captivity and get flashbacks. And also, I can wake up at night from nightmares. So, it affects all of my day after that.
[11:04:52]
DAVID: It's very unstable. It's not by days. It's by random time. It can happen any time.
GOLODRYGA: You had the world covering those moments, the reunion last year with you and your family. The Israeli media was covering it day in, day out.
Now, almost a year later, is it harder or is it easier without all of that media attention?
DAVID: It's harder. It's harder. But I think it's very important that I can use this for good reasons and for important goals that I have.
But sometimes it's hard. Yes, it's not that easy. You know, I was a regular person before. No one knew me before. And now, it's very different. And it still takes time to process all of this. And it's not that easy.
GOLODRYGA: I can't imagine what that process is like for you. But let's talk about some of the positive media attention. And that happened last week. You were at Eliya Cohen and Ziv Abud's wedding. Eliya, another hostage, he survived captivity.
This was a celebration that two years ago not many would imagine would ultimately happen. And yet, there was faith, there was hope that there would be reunions like this one. And they were married.
When you were watching them under that chuppah, after everything they've experienced, that you've experienced, what was that like?
DAVID: I think for me and for everybody, all of the former hostages, it's like a -- it's like a huge victory for all of us.
You know, they tried to take all of us and take our lives and ruin our family's life and everybody here's life. And eventually they didn't manage to like ruin Eliya and Ziv's life. Eventually they got married under the chuppah. And it's the biggest closure and victory.
GOLODRYGA: Part of what kept you alive emotionally and physically was being in captivity with one of your childhood best friends, Guy Gilboa-Dalal.
He was counting out the food rations that you were given on the days that you were fed. There were far too many days, however, that you weren't fed.
And that brings me to that video that the world saw of you emaciated, forced to dig your own grave.
You've said that it was the commander, the Hamas terrorist commander, who picked you for that video because you looked worse than everyone else that was there with you.
And he forced you to write out a three-month calendar and list day by day the amount of food that you ate. And a number of those days, there was no food that you were given. Just talk about that moment.
DAVID: So, yes. One day before the video, so the commander went inside our tunnel, and he just took a picture of my body and Guy's body. And he saw I look worse than him.
So, they decided to take me for the video. To -- yes, I'll be the actor of the video.
And again, everything you see there, like the paper with all the days, like what I eat, what I don't eat, what I eat, it's all staged but it relies on the truth, because we didn't eat for three months.
We were in extreme starvation. We were in starvation, like all the captivity, but specifically on those three months, it was the worst.
Everything I'm saying there and doing, they tell me what to do. But, of course, how you can see my body, it's all through -- I couldn't -- I could barely move, could barely do anything.
When I tried to dig the grave, just to hold the shovel, it was almost impossible. Probably the hardest physical thing I ever did.
[11:09:46]
DAVID: And Guy were in the video always behind me, they didn't -- they didn't -- took any picture of him. And it was really like mental abuse.
All those three months and this specific day with the video, even when they're telling me like to go with them for the grave, when they wanted me to dig.
So, they took me like 50 meters walk. And for me, it was almost -- I almost collapsed. It was almost impossible for me to do. And I'm telling them that it's very hard, but they didn't really listen, didn't really care.
And also, when they take me inside their room, the terrorist room, I can hear them laughing and eating cakes and drinking tea like there's -- there is no person that walks next to them and looks like a skeleton.
It's surreal. It was very frustrating. But this is how they are, they are very cruel.
GOLODRYGA: Cruel is an understatement. Did they ever tell you why they were starving you?
DAVID: Yes. They told us that there is no food in Gaza. But we knew it's not true because we always saw them, the terrorists, they were fat and they had muscles.
And we knew they were lying to us and they're doing like -- they're starving us for sure. There's no other excuse.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: And we'll have more of that conversation with Evyatar David after the break.
He tells me his view of the Trump peace plan and how many hostages still left behind by the Israeli government.
[11:11:51]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GOLODRYGA: Welcome back to the program.
Now we continue my exclusive interview with Evyatar David, who survived 738 days in Hamas captivity after being kidnaped on October 7th.
In this part of our interview, we discussed the trauma of survival and how he and other survivors have been left to fend for themselves since coming home.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: You've talked about now, almost a year later, the continued PTSD, the flashbacks that you face, the nightmares, the good days, the bad days.
I want to be extra careful in broaching this topic with you because I know that a number of the Nova survivor community has taken their own life, or there's concern about that risk for some of them that are still grappling with the trauma that they experienced.
When you hear news like that, what goes through your mind and what is your message to those survivors about continuing to fight through those demons?
DAVID: I think when you feel in your lowest, it's the perfect time not to give up, because that's the point that can break you.
And once you understand it and you don't let it break you, you just keep going, you'll find yourself in a better place, for sure, I can say it.
It doesn't matter what you've been through, what kind of trauma you have, this is the best thing you could do to yourself. Just don't give up when you feel you're going to break, because this is where the turn point can be.
GOLODRYGA: I know your friends and family launched a crowdfunding campaign so that you could focus entirely on your healing. Survivors, though, have testified in the Knesset about months-long waits for psychologists and caps on their therapy sessions.
You're living inside the system. Do you think the government is doing enough right now to help those who have survived? And what could you tell this government or the next government, because there are elections just weeks away, about what they could do differently and better?
DAVID: So, right now we don't have enough help. This is why I do the campaign that my family and friends did for me, for raising money. I wouldn't do it if I had more help. And I hope the next government will do better. I don't know who it's
going to be, but I trust them they will do better.
GOLODRYGA: I do want to ask you, because you have real unfortunate insight into this, more than anybody involved in these talks.
[11:19:46]
GOLODRYGA: Three weeks ago, the Board of Peace announced what President Trump called a historic agreement for Hamas' complete disarmament.
You spent over two years underground with some of these men, these terrorists. You know them in a way no negotiator ever will.
Do you believe Hamas will ever truly give up arms? Do you allow yourself to envision a Hamas-free Gaza and peace?
DAVID: No, I don't think it's possible, because they're pure ideology. They just want the whole land.
They don't really care about Gaza. They don't really care about nothing else. They just want the whole land. So, nothing will satisfy them until they get it.
It's -- they're getting educated about it from their homes, from their parents. It's something -- it's endless. I could see it in their eyes. It's the thing that they want the most.
I never saw something like that. It's scary, really.
GOLODRYGA: When you say they don't care about Gaza, do you mean their fellow Palestinians?
DAVID: I know that a lot of people from Gaza are actually afraid of Hamas. They say that Hamas don't really care about them, and they just want power.
The only thing they care about is that they want the land of Israel, they want Jerusalem, and they want to kill everybody that's here if you're a Jew.
GOLODRYGA: Well, Evyatar, I know you've said that your dream now, going forward, is a simple one. You want to heal, you want to marry, you want to start a family, and to truly return to normal life.
At 25 years old, I wish you all of those dreams coming true and much more. Thank you so much for sitting down and joining us today.
DAVID: Thank you.
Hey, I just want to add another thing. As part of my recovery, I'm doing talks, which is it helps me a lot with my recovery. And me and my brother we're coming to the U.S. on September. We're doing a few talks around the country about my captivity, about his advocating, of course. on me, and about like all the two years. And it's very important for us to do that.
The world needs to know what happened. And we can't -- and we can't forget about it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: And you can watch my extended conversation with Evyatar David online.
Coming up, lifting the lid on America's secretive deportation deals involving dozens of countries.
CNN's Isobel Yeung has an exclusive report speaking to some of the deportees. That's after the break.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ISOBEL YEUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How are you doing here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doing here? Like hell.
YEUNG: Like hell?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. No Internet. No electric. Too much mosquitoes, everybody's had malaria.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[11:23:14]
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GOLODRYGA: Welcome back.
Over the last year, the Trump administration has quietly signed a host of deportation deals involving more than 30 countries. They're often worth more than millions of dollars each. But details of the arrangements and what happens to the deportees are shrouded in secrecy.
CNN's Isobel Yeung traveled to the Central African Republic to find out more. Here's her report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ASENA, TURKISH DEPORTEE: I was so scared. I was crying and I said, I'm not going out.
YEUNG: Asena thought she'd find safety in the U.S. She says she fled Turkey after facing death threats. But then she became one of thousands that the Trump administration has deported.
ASENA: First my hands and with my belly like this and my foot.
YEUNG: So they handcuffed you and shackled you?
ASENA: Yes. Yes.
YEUNG: And you still didn't know where you were going?
ASENA: I don't know where I'm going to. I said, where we are going, tell me. And he said, I don't know, maybe Central Africa. And I was in shock.
YEUNG: Have you ever heard of Central African Republic before?
ASENA: No.
YEUNG: So we are here in Bangui in the Central African Republic, trying to find out what happened with this ICE deportation flight that took place this summer, going from the U.S. to here.
We know that this flight happened in the shadows of secrecy. As far as we know, no one apart from U.N. agencies has managed to meet with these migrants. So we're here trying to track them down.
At 8:58 p.m. on June 11, 18 migrants from all over the world were brought to Alexandria Airport, Louisiana. They say they were handcuffed and shackled. Several claim they were severely beaten.
Two of the migrants say they were forced into a full body restraint, like the one seen here in a demo video. A U.S. official called the allegation a flat out lie and denied anyone was beaten.
The maker of one such restraint said it's a last resort tool intended to promote safety and prevent escalation.
[11:29:49]
YEUNG: Nearly 20 hours later, after a refueling stop, the plane touched down in Bangui, Central African Republic.
Maybe I can just start with where are you from originally?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm from Georgia.
YEUNG: You're from Georgia?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Egypt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Egypt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Afghanistan.
YEUNG: Afghanistan.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Iraq.
YEUNG: Iraq.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jordan. YEUNG: Jordan.
So all different countries. How are you all doing here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doing here? Like hell.
YEUNG: Like hell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. No Internet, no electric, too much of mosquitoes. Everybody has malaria.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The police detained us and then demanded money from us. Since that day, we have not left the building.
YEUNG: The U.S. State Department warns people do not travel here for risk of kidnapping and terrorism and advises those who must to leave behind a DNA sample so they can be identified by their family.
A lot of the migrants have told us that they are terrified to be here, and you can understand why. I mean, this is a country where there's been an ongoing civil war that's still taking place.
But even here in Bangui, there's very high rates of violence, very high rates of criminality, and very high rates of, you know, these armed groups operating here.
I asked the police about the migrants, claims that they are part of the problem.
Some of the migrants here that I've spoken to say that when they go outside, the police stop them and ask them for cash and threaten them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, those police officers are checking who those people are. I don't believe they asking them for money.
YEUNG: Very little is known about what terms the CAR government agreed to with the U.S., but what we do know is that on May 18, just one month before the first deportation flight, State Department diplomats traveled here to meet with the President.
For the past decade, the U.S. has given just a few million dollars per year to the U.N. migration agency, IOM's operations in CAR. But this year that figure shot up to $85 million. An additional $50 million was committed to the CAR humanitarian fund.
We asked the IOM about the money they're receiving. They did not respond to our specific questions, but told us that IOM has a long- standing presence in the CAR and they're receiving funding from a range of donors.
But this is at a time when the Trump administration has been slashing billions of dollars in foreign assistance.
YEUNG: We have been trying to get hold of any U.S. officials to talk about what's been happening and why and how they've sent these migrants here because they are ultimately the ones responsible. I mean, the State Department have emailed back saying as a policy, we
do not discuss diplomatic negotiations or funding mechanisms.
And the U.S. embassy staff have not been replying to us, but we're going to try and knock on the door just to see if they answer.
So we just have some questions about the migrants that were brought here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All questions have to go through them. I'm not authorized to answer any questions.
YEUNG: Right. And is there -- is there anyone else we can contact at the U.S. embassy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Bangui PD at state.gov the email I gave you.
YEUNG: Who are just going to ignore us and pretend that email never came. All right, thank you.
Eventually, the State Department did get back to us. They did not reply to any of our detailed questions, but said the U.S. will use foreign assistance to support countries that help us achieve our immigration priorities. It's a tacit admission that the money is tied to the deportations.
Isobel Yeung, CNN, Central African Republic.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: After the break, as the world mourns the late and very great Dolly Parton, what her contemporary, the folk singer Judy Collins, told me about her experience working with the country music star.
[11:33:34]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GOLODRYGA: Welcome back to the program.
This week, the world lost an icon. The universally-beloved country music star Dolly Parton, dying peacefully in Nashville after a short battle with cancer. She was 80 years old.
Flags have been lowered across the country to half-staff and across the world. People are paying tribute. Even Britains royal family having this grand performance of "9 to 5" outside Buckingham Palace.
Throughout her career, Dolly penned thousands of songs, including classic hits like "I Will Always Love You".
She was also a philanthropist. Her Imagination Library sending out more than 300 million books to children. and she spent millions of dollars on efforts like vaccine research, famously lending the tune of "Jolene" in a drive to get people to the COVID vaccine. (MUSIC)
GOLODRYGA: I love it. Speaking to me about this incredible legacy, a longtime colleague and friend of Dollys and an icon herself, Judy Collins.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: Judy, I'm so sorry for your loss. It is really the world's loss, but you had the privilege of knowing Dolly Parton and spending so much time with her.
Just give us a sample of the icon that you called a friend.
[11:39:41]
JUDY COLLINS, MUSICIAN: Well, first of all, she was an extraordinary person. Just deeply humane and generous -- incredibly generous to a fault -- with her talent and also her personal commitment to children and to the world.
And I think she made everybody's life brighter. She certainly did mine.
She and I worked on "On Both Sides Now", which was on one of her albums. So, I had a duet with her a couple of times. She recorded a song of mine called "The Fisherman's Song", and I was so honored that she would record one of mine.
And I was always inspired by her. There was a lift to her presence as you can see it in all the pictures. And I could see it in all the things that I saw about her.
GOLODRYGA: In 1990, actually, our producer, Alicia, was telling us this story to speak about how internationally beloved Dolly was. Alicia is Irish, and she talked about an experience that her dad was fortunate enough to see.
And that was when Dolly visited a pub in Ireland, watching local musicians perform traditional Irish music. They asked her to join them and then sing her song, "Coat of Many Colors".
(MUSIC)
GOLODRYGA: How does this song stack up against the traditional folk music that you used to sing in Greenwich Village in the 1960s?
COLLINS: Oh, it was very close. Certainly, "Wild Mountain Thyme" comes to my thinking. But whatever she did, there was a liveliness and a brightness.
And of course, I'm Irish -- Irish and English. And, you know, I was listening to an interview with Dolly, and the interviewer said to her, you've had the most extraordinary career. Really, you've done everything. Why isn't it time -- isn't it time for you to retire? And she said, listen, I'm never going to retire because, you know, it
takes a lot to look this cheap. I thought that was Dolly at her funniest and her most honest.
And I just -- I have such, I sang with her at, at the wonderful -- the wonderful gala that we have every year in the East. And we sang together. And that was just a thrill and an honor to do was to sing with Dolly Parton.
And I think everybody felt the same. And when she sang on television, I think most of us wanted to join her.
GOLODRYGA: She was this unique unifier. The fact that you have President Trump and the Democratic Socialists of America both issuing statements in support of her and mourning her loss just talks about that very rare phenomena now.
What do you think about her made her so universally beloved?
COLLINS: Well, she was earthy. You know, she came from a background where she had to figure out what to do with her life and when she began to sing and she began to be in public.
Everything that she touched, as far as I can see, was golden.
You know, she always shared pieces of her life with me and with other people because she was down home. She was somebody who you could talk to about life and about troubles and about joys. And she was committed to what she did. And I respect that so much.
The idea that there's something off about being in the public eye and doing something for as long as she did. And, you know, I've been doing it 87 years, so I know what this is like.
This life of touring and, well, you may see in the background where I am, I'm at a hotel, of course. And she would do the same thing. We had to go -- we had to pick up our baggage and we had to pick up our relationships by phone so that we could talk to people. And it's a life that is very rarely appreciated.
And how should I say it? It's people who can do it and respond to an audience who wants you there and not make them feel like you're living on some other plane.
She was never like that. She was with us and she was a really down home, one-to-one, you know, I'm a human being. I'm a woman. I have problems. I'm -- I've gotten through life like this. And I hope that my music can help you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[11:44:50]
GOLODRYGA: A wonderful conversation there.
And when we come back, a very different story. We're taking a closer look at the death of war criminal Ratko Mladic. How Christiane came face to face with the notorious Bosnian Serb commander
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:49:46]
GOLODRYGA: Welcome back to the program.
Now this week, the war criminal Ratko Mladic, known as the "Butcher of Bosnia", died behind bars at the age of 84. He was the former military commander of the Bosnian Serb forces during the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s, and led his forces to systematically kill more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys in the tiny town of Srebrenica, committing the largest massacre in Europe since the Holocaust.
Christiane was a young correspondent in Bosnia during that horrific war, and from her archive this week, we look at how she came face to face with Mladic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MLADIC: We'd be poor without the Muslims. It's good to have them around, but in a smaller concentration.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Chilling words from the man they called the Butcher of Bosnia, General Ratko Mladic.
The snide humor masked his killer instinct. It defined Mladic, and it made him an uncomfortable man to confront.
And we'd see this preening smile again and again as the war unfolded.
AMANPOUR: Indeed, the Muslims, the Bosnian government says --
I'd been covering the Bosnian war for more than a year by the time I met him, living in this shelled, sniped and besieged city of Sarajevo.
A year of witnessing the ferocious war machine that the Bosnian Serb commander had unleashed. And he did not like my reporting.
MLADIC: What's the lady's name?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Christiane.
MLADIC: I like Kennedy's Christina.
It won't be difficult for her to understand because when I saw her first reports from Sarajevo, I was very angry.
AMANPOUR: Mladic was commanding the Bosnian-Serb military mission to carve out their own ethnically pure republic and join it into a greater Serbia.
This was a daily occurrence, dodging bullets as we covered the unfolding tragedy. For the Bosnian Muslims, the villain was clear.
They are, you know, your own people and your soldiers, to them, you're a great man, you're a hero. To your enemies, you're somebody to be feared and somebody to be hated. How do you feel about that?
MLADIC: Very interesting question. Both things you say are correct.
AMANPOUR: Prosecutors say what Mladic believed to be his greatness was, in fact, ethnic cleansing and genocide. It would reach its climax with the massacre at Srebrenica, July 11th, 1995 -- more than three years into this brutal war.
It was meant to be a U.N.-protected zone for Muslims. When Mladic's forces overran U.N. positions and invaded the tiny enclave, they handed out candy and General Mladic promised the townspeople they would be safe.
Of course, they were not. His soldiers slaughtered more than 7,000 Muslim men and boys who tried to flee.
Hurem Suljic was one who miraculously survived the massacre. I tracked him down in the Bosnian held town of Tuzla four months later.
HUREM SULJIC, SREBRENICA MASSACRE SURVIVOR (through translator): The Serbs said, don't look around. Then I heard a lot of shooting and bodies fell on top of me. They were the people standing behind me. I fell too.
AMANPOUR: Here, he says, he saw Mladic one last time.
SULJIC: He stood there and waited until they killed them. When they killed them, he got back in his car and left.
AMANPOUR: After that massacre, the U.S.-led a bombing campaign against Bosnian-Serb military positions and peace negotiations that eventually ended the fighting. Mladic became a wanted man and soon went into hiding.
I never knew if I would see him again, the man with whom I'd stood on a Bosnian hilltop at the height of the war. But it was with deep satisfaction that I watched Mladic stand in the dark at the Hague to finally face the justice he so brutally denied others.
AMANPOUR: America has -- calls him a war criminal and under any kind of U.N. tribunal, he may have to be prosecuted. What does he think about that?
And it's a tough question, but he's a tough man and he can answer.
MLADIC: Yes, I can take it. I've taken more rough ones. I can take hers too.
I defended my people and only my people can judge me. And there's no greater honor than defending your people.
AMANPOUR: Some twisted definition of honor.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: When we come back, Japan's moving castle. How one community came together to pull this ancient keep back to its rightful place.
[11:54:41]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GOLODRYGA: And finally, moving a castle by hand. Well, that's what more than a thousand people have been doing in Japan.
Wow. These volunteers used ropes, sheer brute force and willpower to move Hirosaki Castle back to its original site.
[11:59:46]
GOLODRYGA: The 400-ton keep built in 1611, was moved for repairs on the stone base beneath after it was damaged in an earthquake.
And after years of renovation, it was time for it to return to its rightful place. The months' long event to relocate it has been a rousing success, involving locals of all ages, all determined to lend a hand.
All right. That's all we have time for this week. Don't forget, you can find all of our shows online as podcast at CNN.com/audio and on all other major platforms.
I'm Bianna Golodryga in New York. Thanks so much for watching.
Christiane will be back next week.
