morning. a very busy monday morning. let's start with five things to know for september 18th. this breaking news. five americans wrongfully detained in iran about to be free this morning. right now they're on their way to a plane that will take them to qatar and back to the united states by tonight, hopefully. and this just into cnn. nine juvenile teenagers who esc a juvenile detention center are back in custody. and former president donald trump said, quote, it was my decision to try overturn the 2020 election results and legal election results say that could impact his defense with the special counsel. >> and hunter biden is suing the irs, alleging its agents illegally released his tax information. >> and the clock is still ticking towards a republican shutdown. it is likely dead on arrival. we'll have more. cnn this morning starts right now. five prisoners who are citizens of the islamic republic will be freed from the prisons of the united states and in exchange, five prisoners who used to be in the islamic republic will be handed over to them based on their request to the american side. >> all right. you heard it right there. right now, iran in the process of releasing those five american prisoners, as part of this deal with the united states. in the last hour, a source told cnn the detainees were being transported to a plane in tehran that will be transferred to qatar. >> they have already transferred $1 billion for what the u.s. says will be for humanitarian purposes only. and five iranis detained in the u.s. will also be released. cnn chief international anchor, christiane amanpour, who has been with us all morning is back with us still. first to becky. becky, we've been kind of waiting. we had a timeline about what we thought might happen and when. it's been a little delayed. what's happening right now? >> reporter: the deal does seem to be moving, albeit at a slightly slower pace than sources had told us it would, but confirming that sources briefed on the situation and in tehran today telling us that the u.s. detainees are now on their way to a jet, which is sitting on the tarmac in tehran, ready to fly those five wrongfully detained american citizens here to qatar, at some point today. now, when i say that deal appears to be going to plan, to the extent that it can. the other part of that deal, of course, is a very important complex and complicated transfer of funds from a south korean -- from a south korean bank via switzerland into two doha accounts. two banks here in doha. six iranian banks have opened bank accounts at these two doha banks. and we have heard from the source both here on the ground and from the iranian side that that money has now arrived in that -- in those two doha bank accounts. so the iranians, this is iranian money that was frozen in accounts in south korea, does now, it seems, confirmed to have arrived in these doha accounts. which is all important, because as i say, this was a complicated and complex deal. perhaps nobody really expected it to go completely to plan. but as things stand at present, certainly, it does appear that those u.s. dectainees are on their way to the flight. and once that takes off from te tehran, it's about a two-hour flight from here to doha where they will be met by the american negotiators. >> becky, thank you. stand by as we wait for that plan to take off. christiane, just to you, reminding people of who has been held and for how long. siamak namazi, but also, emad shargi and morad tahbaz and two others who have not wanted to be named. >> that's right. two others that have not wanted to be named and everyone has respected that. and siamak has been held since october 2015, that's nearly eight years, only because he's american. the same with the other two who have been held more or less for the two and a half and two years each. they have been held as part of the ongoing iranian strategy of trying to get its money back that has been frozen in many, many countries after the islamic revolution of 1979. and so this has just been going on. and at the heart of it, though, really, is a human story. at the heart of it are people who have been just swept up, you know, some sham trial, some completely irrelevant charges, some completely nonsensical sentences. and put into deep suffering in evine, which eall know to be such a hard, terrible place, where they have a whole set of different kinds of prisoners there, especially, they have political prisoners. you know, there are a lot of the protesters from, you know, this year of women's protests who are still there. and when i spoke to siamak in march, you know, he took a last-ditch desperation move to risk calling out of prison. he did have phone privileges, but not necessarily to call cnn. but nonetheless, he called cnn and laid it out. how terrible life was, it had gotten better after he was out of the harshest two years of solitary confinement, and how desperate he was that the u.s. administration, the president, all the others to hear their plea and to get them out. >> i picked up -- i was at the white house at the time. there was a shift in tempo after that interview and i think he had been on a hunger strike before that, as well. he had started to draw attention. the process after that interview, did you pick up any sense of if negotiations had picked up, how they had picked up, how did they get to this point that we were at today? >> no. to be honest, i'm interested to hear from you that you noticed a shift in tempo. i'm glad as a news organization, we were able to play that role. all we did was report the story and it was a story that i guess potentially the administration could hide behind the idea that it wasn't in the spotlight. it wasn't in the spotlight. >> until it was. >> until it was. and i'm very proud that cnn put it into sfopotlight. this is a human story. and every other administration has had to deal with these kind of unsavory, unpalatable, maybe, to many people, deals with iran. you know, it's terribly upsetting that a very decent arms control agreement, called the iran nuclear deal, was just trashed by president trump. and now we're in a terrible, terrible situation. because we have all of that going on, as well. having said that. president trump, president obama, previous presidents did enter deals to release wrongfully held americans in iranian jails who were only there for the single reason of being america, as siamak told me. >> christiane, thank you. you'll be with us throughout the day as this plane takes off and hopefully comes to the united states. and this just in. nine teens who escaped a juvenile detention center in pennsylvania after a riot there are back in custody. police say the teens worked together to overpower two female employees and take their keys. cnn's danny freeman is live for us in philadelphia with more. danny, you're no stranger to prisoner escapes at this point in time. what -- where did the police actually find this -- this seems to have been resolved fairly quickly. >> yeah, phil, we've got to stop meeting like this. that is the good news. unlike the danelo cavalcante case, which lasted for about 14 days, this one lasted less than 12 hours. but let me tell you a little bit about what we know and how they got to this point of capturing all nine of those escaped inmates. it all started around 9:00 p.m. last night at the abraxas can academy, it's a juvenile detention center, but it's only 15 miles west of where cavalcante was captured late last week. so a similar area, similarly on edge after learning last night that nine teens basically in this facility had escaped. they're all between the ages of 15 and 17. and as you said, we learned this morning, they overpowered two female security guards, they stole their keys, were able to get out of the facility that way, and then crawled under exterior fences, to ultimately escape. the escape was much shorter than afterwards. they were spotted between midnight and 1:00, trying to steal a car. homeowners turn on the light, they got scared off. and at 5:47 a.m., they were able to catch 4:00 of the inmates and less than hour later, after successfully stealing a pickup truck and trailer, police were able to capture the remaining five. as we started, the comparisons to cavalcante were brought up in a press conference with pennsylvania state police just recently. take a listen to what they said. >> i figured we would catch these kids, because they're probably not as resilient as a 30-some-year-old, however old he was, who knows he's going to jail for the rest of his life. i don't know if 15 to 17-year-olds have the resiliency to want to not have to go back, right? the four of them got cold and banged on a door, they were done. >> reporter: so certainly a frightening evening as we got word of another escape, but the good news is that this one actually concluded within less than 12 hours. phil? >> danny freeman for us, thank you. so this just into cnn. hunter biden has sued the irs alleging the agents of the irs illegally released his tax information and failed to protect his privacy. our senior crime and justice reporter kaitlan polantz joins us now. this is a really fascinating turn after the plea deal that was in part about taxes fell apart. does he have a case here? >> reporter: phil and poppy, he's certainly on the offensive. hunter biden is going into court against the irs. there were two special agents within the irs who became whistleblowers for congress earlier this year. and he says that those two irs agents who had been working on his tax investigation over many years, that did ultimately result in him trying to make a guilty plea to a misdemeanor and that plea deal falling apart, he's saying those two agents essentially went out and did interviews at a point in time when they shouldn't have been talking about his tax returns, and his lawyers and hunter biden's lawyers are alleging that they disclosed quite a lot about hunter biden's tax returns, what he had not been paying, the tax years that were under investigation, also liability he had, some deductions he may have needed to pay. there's a lot in here based on what those two whistle-blowers were doing publicly around the time that they became whistle-blowers, while also working for the irs, complaining about the handling of that investigation. and so now this is in the court system with judges going to look at it. hunter biden wants about $1,000 in damages for every time something about his tax returns was disclosed. when he says that it was unlawfully disclosed and that his records weren't appropriately protected by the irs, because tax returns are confidential, by law, we haven't gotten a statement from the attorneys for these whistle-blowers yet, these two special agents with the irs, but there are some questions about what exactly they did disclose, because at the time they weren't using his name, but it was very clear to everyone when they became whistle-blowers about this investigation, that it was, indeed about hunter biden. >> going to be really interesting to see where it goes. certainly an aggressive legal kaitlin, thanks for the update. a new poll shows only one third of voters thinks that president biden would make it through a second term if re-elected. what that means for the 2024 race. and california governor gavin newsom says he would sign a climate bill that would require companies to report all of their climate-warming emissions. we'll discuss that, ahead. unlike some others, it supports 7 brain health indicators, including mental alertness from one serving. to help keep me shararp. try new neuriva ultra. think bigger. mashed potato lovers. your day has come. indulge in the rich, creamy classic bob evans mashed potatoes. farm fresh potatoes blended wi real milk and butter for that homemade taste. with the delicious taste bob evans known for. bring home the warm comfort of masd potatoes today. the 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an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm under 7. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. i'm lowering my risk. adults lost up to 14 pounds. i lost some weight. ca can. the concerns about president biden's age, at least among the electorate, they're going away. according to a new cbs poll, only 43% of voters think that president biden would make it through a second term if re-elected joining us now, cnn anchor, cnn political commentator for spectrum news, errol louis. and elissa griffin. you and i will litigate something at the end of this, that we're going at it over break. but on this issue itself, look, to this point, also during break, i'll put all of that on the record, whether you guys like it or not, the president is still old. that's not going to change. so i think the question becomes, is there something that the white house can do to mitigate this, his campaign can do to mitigate, but it's not something top of mind for voters when you actually get into the details. >> it's clearly something top of mind with voters. the white house' job is to say, what, it's compared to what. look at all the things he's done and try to turn that age into an advantage. he deftly defanged it in a debate with walter mondale, with a little bit of humor. always a good underutilized things in our politics today and folks got over it. but you're not going to wish this away. it's baked in the cake. >> over the weekend, some top democrats coming out in support of a biden/harris ticket. this is, of course, after the pelosi interview with anderson and jamie accurraskin as well, hesitated in terms of a full-throated endorsement of harris on the ticket as well. let's just listen to this. >> this is biden/harris, a record of accomplishment up there with franklin roosevelt and lyndon johnson, kamala harris, the vice president. this is our ticket, we're proud of it. >> we're all behind the biden/harris administration, which has delivered spectacular, remarkable victories. we have been making tremendous progress under biden/harris, and we're all for the ticket. >> vice president harris has been a great vice president. she'll be a great running mate. she's been a tremendous partner in the things that president biden has been able to accomplish, which have been phenomenal. >> coincidence, errol? >> no, not a coincidence. somebody got a memo. somebody got a couple of phone calls. >> a biden/harris ticket memo. >> this draumbeat, this idea tht came from the republicans that a vote for biden is a vote for harris so let's attack harris. and the democrats were slow to pick up on that and were actually giving ate little bit of oxygen by not forcefully push back. what you saw over the weekend was them finally realizing, if we don't protect the black woman on the ticket, then the base of the democratic party and black women vote for women, we're going to create a bunch of problems for ourselves, as well as with asian americans, which she happens to be. college-educated women, which she happens to be. younger voters like vice president harris. you can sort of dissolve the whole democratic coalition by not speaking up for your sitting vice president. >> wouldn't want to do that! >> but last remarkable is obviously, the age issue is an issue. 73% of americans are concerned about it. but the best inoculation against is for democrats to remind folks that donald trump is 77 years old. he's no spring chicken, he's not significantly younger than president biden. where things get complicated, i'm going to go with john avlon, the race is not over yet, if it ends up being someone like a nikki haley, that's a huge problem for the biden white house. a next generation of voters in her 50s and can litigate that we need representation for this whole country. the two biggest voting blocs will be millennials and gen-z. we're not exactly represented by the octogenarian class in washington. that's the one thing that can play a real wrench in that deal. >> ready to litigate? >> give me historical precedent for anyone in the history of the republican party or really any party being this far up, this close to the iowa caucuses, with this rock solid of a base, that in poll after poll after poll isn't remotely malleable or willing to openly consider anybody else losing. >> i take your challenge. give me a case where you've got a candidate that's been indicted four times over 90 counts. >> it's had a huge impact on his polling. >> but when people start thinking about electability. off very fractured feel that evaluates him. remember, donald trump, he is a hard-core support, some polls, in "the washington post," 37% of republicans say they will support him no matter what. but that's -- there's a super majority of people who are opposed to him or persuadable. that's why i think it's disservice to where we are, the future is unwritten, to say that this is a foregone conclusion, it's a done deal. it's not. people haven't voted yet and they haven't even started for four months. >> if i were a nikki haley, i would put iowa aside, which hasn't elected a republican president since 2000. >> angry people on your -- focus all your energy on new hampshire, where it's an open primary. you can turn out independents who want street for republicans, voters who don't traditionally show up in a republican primary. and south carolina, where she's a former governor and popular. >> the problem is, she's polling at 18% in her own state, right? and donald trump is at something like 46% in her state. with all of the non-trump candidates, the problem is, you can't find a state that they win before super tuesday. and, you know, i mean, it is lovely to talk about the rules that we wished we had, but politics is about the rules that we do have. and in this primary process, donald trump has got sort of a fortress that nobody has demonstrated that they have the ability to -- >> hoost a fortress in the republican party. once the electability argument starts coming in, that's a real problem. the rnc has nod actually done a good jobs about making sure they're proportional representation to delegates. a lot of these states are winner take all. if it's a crowded field, you take all the delegates. that's a problem with a solution that no one seems to have taken seriously. >> and the rnc is rigging this for trump. there are people like congressman will hurd, who has turned away from the previous debate, because likely republican voters and independents factored into his poll numbers. i would think if you want to win a general election, you want somebody who brings those voters. that's also going to be a problem for the other candidates. >> thank you very much. this is fascinating. i'm not going to say who won in that debate. >> at least avalon was willing to grant that errol got one thing right. >> i can't sit next to both of you guys every morning! >> appreciate it. the american detainees set to be released have arrived at the qatar ambassador. then they will head to the united states. >> and the autoworkers on strike for a fourth day as contract talks continue with the big three. next, we'll discuss this ongoing strike with former michigan congressman, fred upton. he's here. ready in just minutes withth the delicious taste, bob evans is knonown for. bring home thehe warm, gooey goodness of mac and cheese today. ♪ we're not writers, but we help you shape your financial story. ♪ we're not an airline, but our network connects global businesses across nearly 160 markets. ♪ we're not a startup, but our innovation labs use new technologies to help keep your information secure. ♪ we're not architects, but we help build stronger communities. ♪ we're not just any bank. we are citi. ♪ oh booking.com, ♪ i'm going to somewhere, anywhere. ♪ ♪ a beach house, a treehouse, ♪ ♪ honestly i don't care ♪ find the perfect vacation rental for you booking.com, booking. yeah. loving this pay bump on our allowance. wonder where mom and dad got the extra money? maybe they won the lottery? maybe they inherited a fortune? maybe buried treasure? maybe it fell off a truck? or maybe they switched to xfinity mobile - the fastest mobile service. save hundreds a year over t-mobile, at&t and verizon. now i can buy that electric scooter. i'm starting a private equity fund that specializes in midcap. you do you. switch to xfinity mobile today. what they're fighting for, fundamentally, is the american dream. and so we stand with the uaw as they fight for a fair contract, as they fight to benefit from the fruits of their labor. >> so that was democratic house minority leader, hakeem jeffries on the ground in michigan, who was visiting a ford assembly plant. he marched on the picket line with uaw members on strike. some republicans like former vice president mike pence also supporting the workers, but taking a different approach instead, arguing the union is, quote, pushing back rightly on the biden administration policies encouraging electric vehicles. listen. >> i also think that this green agenda that is using taxpayer dollars to drive our automotive economy into electric vehicles is understandably causing great anxiety among uaw members. >> joining us now is former congressman fred upton of michigan. he was one of ten house republicans to vote for trump's impeachment after the january 6th attacks. congressman, i know you want me to call you fred, i just can't do it. so congressman, thanks for being with us this morning. i'm so fascinated by democrats and republicans, many of them on the same page when it comes to supporting the uaw, but very very different reasons. do you agree with republicans who think that this is an opening for the party in michigan? maybe taking that open senate seat, which hasn't happened for a republican since '94? >> michigan has been a purpose state for a long time. we had a republican u.s. senator, spence abraham. we had a republican governor, rick schneider for eight years. it is very much in play. trump won it in 2016. biden won it with a little better margin, 154,000 votes in '20. but michigan is one of those eight states that's up for grabs, and the uaw is a pretty strong force, that is for sure. and this strike, you know, it's a little bit ingenious, that they're going after all three companies at the same time. and it's, you know, these rolling strikes, a variety of different facilities. it's taken notice, and i think it's going to go for a little while. and they made some pretty good demands and they're already halfway there. if you've already compromised halfway, you already got that. so you know, whatever the final settlement is going to be, it's going to be much closer to their original demand than literally splitting the difference in two. >> well, one part of the uaw demand is for 32 hours or four-day workweeks. that is something that the ceos of these companies have said, absolutely no way, hard stop on that. but i thought that senator bernie sanders' answer yesterday when our jake tapper asked him what he thought about that was really interesting. here it is. >> people in america are stressed out for a dozen different reasons. and that's one of the reasons why life expectancy in our country is actually in decline. people are overwhelmed. they've got to take care of their kids, worry about housing, they're worried. it seems to me that if new technology is going to make us a more productive society, the benefits should go to the workers. >> he's talking about ai, electric vehicles, not just the heads of the companies should benefit from that progress, that the workers should, too. and it means that they can get it done in four days, not five, so be it. what do you think? >> well, technology is a big part of that process. you look at tesla, they're ultimately, i think, big winners on this, because they're non-union, they're able to pay less wages and they don't have the legacy costs. that's the other ingredient here, the legacy costs that the big three have, you know, it used to be $1,000 per vehicle. that's a lot of money when the average car these days is getting close to 50,000 bucks. but we have a worker shortage. what business out there isn't looking for employees, whether it be from my old congressional district, we have a lot of auto parts suppliers. you drive down there, they have yard signs looking for people, pretty decent wages that are out there. so this is going to take a little wile for this strike to end. but that's a pretty big demand that will send ripples through the market down the line. >> you know, it's really interesting, just sort of back to the politics of this, that the uaw head says, look, presidential candidates have to earn our endorsement. and typically they've gotten behind democrats. you know that well. i remember when you were on a tour a while ago with one of the uaw officials, you quipped, where's the room where they cut the check against me, right? they always would fund your opponents. but the former head of the michigan republican party told politico over the weekend, as rahm emanuel used to say, i'll never let a good crisis go to waste? do you think this could tip? do you think the uaw could back the republican presidential candidate? >> i think they could and if you look at what mike pence said this weekend, you look where trump is, and remember, trump won michigan in large part because he took on nafta. said it's an unfair agreement, we can do better. and in fact, he did deliver on that. he delivered a bipartisan approach that was adopted in the -- most of the democrats voted for it, most of the republicans voted for it. it changed the dynamics of our trade relationship with both mexico and canada and the uaw supported it. it was a good thing. and trust me, trump will be back. assuming that he is the nominee, and i think that he will be, he will be all in for michigan, trying to flip michigan back to him from biden and using the uaw as -- and what he did on trade as one of his mainstays. >> i want to ask you finally about this intending government shutdown, potentially 12 days away. hearing your voice, you're not sad that you're not there anymore to deal with this, but one of your former fellow republicans in congress, sort of of the same mooind-set as you, said yesterday on cnn, he thinks they're going to do it. that they're going to shut down the government again. you told jake tapper last year that you're a mccarthy supporter, directly. i'm a mccarthy supporter. do you support -- are you a fan of how mccarthy has dealt with this so far? >> you know, kevin -- you know, it is poison on the hill. and we had a retirement this last week, so the republicans are june man short further. so the difference, i think, is now four. you can't afford to lose more than four. but we don't have a deal. what i think they're trying to do is do exactly what they did on the debt ceiling. they're trying to get a bill passed in the house with only republicans, and it will be razor-thin. if they pass it, it will be by one vote. then go to some agreement with the senate, even though the senate is going to be a bipartisan agreement. they're going to have 70 votes to keep the government open. pretty reasonable approach. they'll include money for ukraine. it's going to pass big-time. it will be -- the two sides -- who will blink first? if kevin can get the votes to pass it in the house, he'll have a bill to go to conference with the senate, but the senate may just say, screw you. we're going to pass our bill. we'll send it back to you and we'll adjourn so the house republicans are going to be ultimately ending up with a bill that's pretty much along the lines of the senate, if we're able to keep the government open. >> what's your answer to "if." do you agree with kinzinger? shuts down? >> i think it's going to shut down. i do. i just -- you know, they should have stayed in august. it took six weeks to go home. they came back last week, and they couldn't even pass a defense bill and the clock is ticking. i'm seeing it on your station. it's like -- >> yes, we have a big clock! >> i know, it's like the michigan/ohio state game if you're at the big house. >> phil's laughing over here. >> not if he's going to side with michigan, i'm not. >> yeah, three-peat, look out, phil! >> i don't really know what you guys are talking about, but that was a fascinating interview, former congressman fred -- i'll call you fred when we say good-bye. appreciate it. thank you. >> that's rude. california governor gavin newsom says he will sign a major climate disclosure bill a day after announcing a lawsuit against oil companies. in that legal complaint, the state of california states that the country's largest oil and gas companies not only contributed to the climate crisis that has harmed the health of californians, but that lawsuit also says that oil companies deceived the public about it. >> it can illuminate their deceit. it can illuminate their deception. and their lies over the course of 50, 60, 70 years they've been lying to you. >> the bill would require any company making at least $1 billion a year to disclose their annual carbon emissions or risk being excluded from the state's huge economic market. cnn's chief climate correspondent, bill we're, joins us now. and we've talked often about incentives, disincentives, carrots and sticks. is this something that's going to move the needle? >> it could. it absolutely could. this could be a big deal. this law would require big companies from banks to oil companies to big retailers to disclose their scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. that last one, scope 3 is the big one. that takes into account, the entire value chain. if you're selling clothes, that's how much carbon it took to grow the carbon and run the factories and the facilities and all of that. if you're a bank, that means disclosing the carbon footprint of all of your investments, which is 700 times greater than the direct emissions from keeping the lights on down at the bank. so a lot of opposition from this, from the chamber of commerce, from bankers, specifically. but companies like apple are supporting this. came out behind it here. and of course, california has been on the vanguard, you know, since the '70s, of clean air laws, emission standards, and the country has been forced to keep up with that over time. >> that is really interesting to see apple's response, what they're doing to try to become carbon neutral. what they're doing in texas, et cetera, and the response of big oil. what is big oil saying about this spill? how can they fight it? >> yeah, they're opposed. you know, the american petroleum st institute and the lobby for the group of this says this is way too complicated. lit cost too much at the end of the day. but of course, at the end of these lawsuits, as well. california joining almost now two dozen states, counties, cities from, you know, maine to maui, suing big oil companies for deceptive sales of their products, hiding what they knew was hazardous to life as we know it here. so, this is an interesting moment. where these are the most powerful, more profitable companies in the world right now, but if you look at the trend of solar and batteries and clean energy, almost 90% of new projects are all renewable. so we're at this cusp right now, where it's sort of the end of the oil era, the beginning of something else, and a lot of fighting in between. >> that's a fascinating dynamic. bill we'ir, thanks as always, m friend. tonight, california governor gavin newsom sits down with our dana bash for a sweeping interview on a potential biden/trump rematch, the state of california, and whether he is the best bet for his party's future. it begins tonight at 9:00. check it out. a d1 player from ohio state university medically required from football due to his struggles with mental health, but that didn't stop him from making a difference. >> i'm just -- i'm a college kid. i've got homework and even when it's hard, i feel like this is what i'm supposed to be doing. this is what i'm supposed to be doing. >> i'm going to tell you why h hairy miller is my champion for change. that's next. felite. we do more replacements and recalibrbrations than anyone el. >> customer: thank you so much. >> t tech vo: schedule now. >> singers: ♪ safelite repapai, safelite replace ♪ the first time you connected your godadaddy website and your store was also the first time you realized... well, we can do anything. cheesecake cookies? the chookie! manage all your sales fromr that aays puts you first. start today at godaddy.com my asthma felt anythg but normal. ♪ ♪ it was time for a nunormal with nucala. nucala is a once-monthly add-on treatment for severe eosinophilic asthma that can mean less oral steroids. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions 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adjustable mattress sets. learn more at stearnsandfoster.com here in the bay, our cars takes and all of our stuff where we want to go. but, our cars can't take us e with unpaid tolls. vehicles with overdue, unpaid tolls may not be able to renew their registration until outstanding balances are paid. payment assistance is available. visit bayareafastrak.org/ase so go pay your unpaid tolls y and keep your wheels on the ! welcome back. all this week, we are bringing you stories of ordinary people who are breaking new ground, changing the way things get done, and making the most of human potential. we call the series, champions for change. >> long before i worked at cnn, i was a student athlete at ohio state on their baseball team -- very long before i worked at cnn. my champion is also an ohio state student athlete, a football star who abruptly hung up his cleats for good and took his private battle with depression public. watch. >> it seemed obvious almost to be a football player. the expectation was, you play good football, you become an all-american and get drafted and make lots of money. and that's what i thought i was going to do. >> i'm familiar with the scale and intensity of division i athletics. about 20 years ago, i was playing division i athletics on this very field, in this very stadium. but the level of the intensity, someone like harry, with one of the biggest football programs in the country is dealing with is unfathomable. >> it was two years ago that harry came into your office and said, i'm thinking about killing myself. what happens in that moment as a coach and as a parent? >> the first thing is, it takes you to your knees to hear someone actually physically say that. and i give him so much credit for being able to verbalize that. >> i felt if the truth had to be told, i might as well tell it. i think it was receivable, because it's a experience that a lot of people have. i'm a high-achieving depressed person. i have a 4.0, i was successful, but i was not healthy. and there are a lot of successful people that have been unhealthy for a long time. is this what success is supposed to feel like? because it feels awful. i think about all the student athletes who have committed suicide and i remember the thoughts that i had before the moments where i thought i would kill myself and i realized that they were thinking the same thing, that those were the last thoughts. that was it. and it breaks my heart. it's hard when a parent says, can you please reach out to my child, i haven't heard from them. i'm just, i'm a college kid. i've got homework. and even when it's hard, i feel like this is what i'm supposed to be doing. this is what i'm supposed to be doing. >> harry no longer plays the physical game, but he's still a respected part of the team. walking among the players, helping them manage the pressures, and when needed, encouraging them to open up and get help. >> i think he in addition to setting a blueprint for how to utilize services when you need them, in his courageousness and sharing his story, his journey really inspired a lot of student athletes around the nation. >> he's done such a great job making sure that us players are okay with talking about our mental health. so he's with us around the time, and especially helps the young guys and knows what kind of problems that they could be facing. >> i think it's one thing to offer mental health services to student athletes, but another thing to embed them. so not over in my office, not kind of in a stuffy setting, but really on the field, on the sidelines, increasing access to services, because their schedules are so insane. >> he is changing lives and the culture of our whole program. >> the whole point of me talking about anything is to not make it weird. is to destigmatize, to make it okay to talk about it. >> i chose harry to be my champion, first and foremost, i'm a dad. i'm a dad of four kids who have watched our mental health crisis reach epidemic proportions. and that is why harry ice story is so critically important. an ability with one person to shift the status quo, an entire culture around the sport of football at the highest level. >> he's flying to d.c. to have interactions with folks on capitol hill about federal legislation for mental health, and at such a young age, he's already had such a great impact, and at the same time, he's still fighting some of this stuff. but he shared with me that he finds peace in helping people. that's what he's doing now. he's got such a bright future ahead of him. >> such a gracourageous persona story, but such a fascinating story from the ohio state football program. ryan day's father committed suicide at the age of 8 for him. the through lline of those experiences and his commitment to mental health have changed the program. if you need help, call or text 988 and tune in saturday at 8:00 p.m. for the "champions for change" special. >> i'med so ga edso glad you di though. this is cnn breaking news. breaking news just in. that plane carrying five americans released from prison in iran, has taken off from iran's capital of tehran. it is headed now for qatar. we have analysis, christiane amanpour at the table, david sanger, as well. christiane, which is what we were waiting for all morning. the money has been transferred. the plane is out. >> absolutely. and we're going to wait until they land in doha and are officially transferred from irani custody from qatarry and u u.s. custody. i'm sure we won't hear much before that. they're on a plane and won't be free to talk about it until they are officially in u.s. custody, if doha. where they will, you know, land on this qatari plane, they'll have sort of an hour transfer, probably some quick spot health checks, on to an american plane, and then back to the united states. and apparently, there are u.s. officials there in doha, waiting to accompany them. it's a phenomenal conclusion, hopefully, again, fingers crossed, to a very, very, very difficult and fraught situation for ordinary civilians, who got caught up in this terrible, political, strategic situation that iran always takes these people in order to get money, and they've done nothing wrong. nothing wrong, except to be american >> david, the posture of this administration when it comes to wrongfy detained americans. they seem to be more on the front foot. despite the frustration of the families and the time it has taken, they have been willing to try things perhaps other administrations weren't willing to do. you're seeing some of the political blowback related to the $6 billion, why, though, in terms of that strategy when it comes to wrongfully detained americans? >> they have come to the conclusion, particularly after the russians started taking americans as well, and we have seen wrongfully detained people in china, this is becoming a pretty standard play. they're both trying to get people out and prevent these regimed from being able to have access to more americans to grab. i thought it was notable that we have heard from american officials in recent times, do not go to iran under any circumstances. because they were afraid they'll try to grab more and get more cash out of this. that said, it's a humanitarian win. it's not necessarily, there's not necessarily translated into a political win. we're not seeing this move the nuclear negotiatnegotiations. >> to david's point, not only are we not seeing progress we know of on the nuclear front, there's been a rapid expansion of their nuclear program after that deal fell apart. friday marked one year since the death of mahsa amini. you look at the crackdown on political dissent in iran. it comes in a really interesting context. >> it does. others, and dade knows a lot about the nitty-gritty of the arms control and that. i don't know whether there's some kind of informal, as they said, there's no jcpoa. apparently this administration has given up trying to renegotiation. they just couldn't do it. renegotiate the nuclear deal that president trump took the united states and the world out of, to this calamitous moment we're at, which causes the iranians to keep jacking up their enrichment. they said maximum pressure is going to work. it didn't. it didn't get the hostages out, didn't do anything to change the regime. i think they may have potentially halted enrichment at a certain level. >> they're continuing to, not as quickly, but i think the key point is just the one christiane has made, in both the case of north korea and the case of iran, we're in a vastly worse place today than we were when president trump came into office. >> just one other issue, on the blowback for releasing these prisoners, come on, president biden went into a deal with putin, with whom you can say we're in a proxy war to get brittney griner out. this is a war. president putin is at least as negative an international player as the iranian ayatollahs. this is about humanitarian release of people wherever they are, americans who are wrongfully detained, and it should be separated from anything else. as i say, many administrations have gone through this process. >> i want to bring in becky anderson at doha at this airport where we expect the flight to land. we also have natasha bertrand as well. to start with what's happening on the ground in doha, what's your sense in terms of timing and the role that was played in all of this, is an extremely important one in how that came to be. >> you're absolutely right. this has been a complex and very, very complicated negotiation. they have played a role in the logistics of getting these u.s. detainees out of tehran, and we can confirm from a source briefed on the situation that that flight is now wheels up from an airport in tehran, en route to here. an airport in doha. that flight should take about two hours. so we should expect that flight to land on the tarmac just behind me here about two hours from now. it's midafternoon, doha time. the other crucial role that they have played in all of this is negotiating the exchange of the iranian prisoners in the u.s. to -- there are five of them, two of whom will be released today, if not have been released. some reports suggesting that the two who are coming back here have already been released and indeed may already be in doha. no confirmation of that. this and two or who were imprisoned in the united states, it's reported, will be staying in the u.s. that is their decision. one other will be moving to a third country. so doha, of course, qatar also involved in that exchange, and crucially, for the iranians, the transfer of those frozen funds from south korea to switzerland in the first instance, and then the $6 billion worth of cash into two banks here in doha. six iranian banks, as we understand it, have set up accounts with the two banks there and the $6 billion in frozen cash is now restricted but available to the iranians to spend as washington describes it, on humanitarian goods only. so you're absolutely right to point out that they have played an absolutely strukategic role what has been 18 months of negotiations. they started with talks about reworking the nuclear file, the nuclear talks, but in the end, today at least, from what we understand it, these talks accelerated over the past months, and it is all about this prisoner exchange today and the transfer of those otherwise frozen funds restricted funds into accounts here, now available to the iranian regime. back to you guys. >> becky, thank you. natasha, to that point, to the $6 billion in iranian money that has been unfrozen essentially but restricted by the united states, that has been the point of a lot of criticism, specifically from republican lawmakers. can you understand how the united states government and the biden administration explains how they keep a check on the funds to make sure they're only used for humanitarian purposes. >> republicans have really seized on this, saying it amounts to a ransom payment. they have issued statements saying this is going to further encourage iran to take more americans prisoner. the administration is pushing back on that and they're saying this money is not going to be going straight into iranian coffers. it's not something iran can just use to spend on whatever it wants, like its missile development, for example, or its nuclear program. these are funds that are going to be closely monitored by qatar, by the u.s. treasury department, and they'll only be able to be disbursed periodly and for humanitarian reasons like for food, medicine, agricultural devices, things iran and its population clearly desperately need. that's the administration's argument here, they're providing this money which is not u.s. taxpayer money. it's frozen iranian funds that were given to them from oil sales years ago that have been frozen in south korean bank accounts that are now going to be sent into qatari bank accounts, that qatar will then be able to monitor and disburse, again, with the oversight of the u.s. treasury department. the u.s. is saying look, this is the best deal we were able to get, and obviously, a less controversial part of the deal is the release of the five iranian prisoners who had been in u.s. custody. all convicted on non-violent offenses. >> natasha, thank you very much. i want to bring you back to the table. christiane, we're almost out of time. we followed this story and covered it more deeply than pretty much anybody, particularly in the case of sumecamazi. >> i think he had the guts to call out and make an international global plea directed also at president biden and the administration in march, knowing he was in a desperate state, that obviously he has lawyers and people who are telling him, his family, that nothing is happening. the negotiations for their release or the deal and this and that are not going anywhere. he felt he had to weigh in publicly with a plea to the administration on his behalf and the behalf of the rest of the americans in prison there. i think he's very well aware, and we spoke a little bit about thiserse there are many, many other iranians in jail as a result of a cackden by the iranian regime, and i'm sure this affects people who have been in that situation. i do believe that for a long time, this administration did not put this front and center. so i'm very happy they did in the last few months and they got their own citizens back. they are getting their own citizens back hopefully safe and sound. >> you did keep it in the conscience. >> i'm a journalist and that's our job. >> david, we have about a minute left. u.s. officials are confirming wheels are up. they head to doha. for the administration, what does this mean? what does it demonstrate? >> it demonstrates they have finally focused on this, and i think gotten some real results. both with russia and now with iran. think about this. the president of iran is in new york right now. he just arrived for the u.n. general assembly. president biden is in new york right now. they will not talk. they will not meet. they will not run across each other. and that tells you a lot about just how broken the relationship is now. and until that gets solved we're not going to solve the larger problem. >> thank you both for being with us throughout the morning on this breaking news. we here at cnn will keep you posted all day as this plane lands in qatar and takes off for the united states and when those americans get home. >> we'll be watching that, and you can watch that. cnn news central starts now. we begin with breaking news. a homecoming more