We're going to school on today's show to explore what it's like for young Ukrainian refugees to attend classes in a different country with a different language.

With each passing day in their home nation, we're getting a clearer picture of what they left behind.

It's been about a month and a half since Russia launched what it called a "special military operation" in Ukraine.

Ongoing peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian government officials have not led to a stop in the fighting, and the scars are getting deeper from the Russian invasion.

It's not just scenes of destruction, though they're extensive, according to Ukrainian officials.

They say about 90% of the residential buildings in the city of Mariupol have been damaged or destroyed in the fighting.

But now, there are international accusations that Russian troops have been committing war crimes.

Even in times of conflict, the United Nations has rules against certain actions that warring countries can take.

These limits were agreed to in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and they include intentionally causing great suffering, unjustified destruction of property, taking hostages, and mistreating prisoners.

Russian forces recently pulled back from the Ukrainian city of Bucha, which is located just a few miles northwest of the capital.

And what they left, according to several world leaders, is evidence of war crimes: civilians who were reportedly murdered, indications that people were atrociously harmed.

Russia has denied targeting civilians in the war, and it says pictures of alleged war crimes from Bucha are fake and that they were staged by the Ukrainian government.

But European and American leaders are calling for more sanctions⏤penalties on Russia's economy⏤in response.

The United Nations estimates that more than 4.2 million Ukrainian civilians have left their homeland to live in other nations.

More than half of them have arrived in Poland, and that's where CNN's Kyung Lah got an idea of what it's like for some Ukrainian students to go back to school.

To learn the full scope of war...

...take a seat in Ms. Magda's classroom.

She's a Polish teacher using Google Translate to communicate in Ukrainian with her new foreign students.

Her class has grown by 40% this month, with new children who've just fled the only home they've ever known.

You're translating on the Internet as you teach.

Uh... yes, because I know only Polish language.

How important is it for you as a teacher to help these kids?

Very important. [Polish]

Primary School 157 with bilingual classes has welcomed every new refugee; classes are more cramped.

But these public school students don't complain because they feel they already know the strangers sitting next to them.

Well, a lot of kids have come to our school, and some of them have told us... uh... stories about what's happened.

They've left people that they love behind.

Edwards Czyzewski is 13 years old, a Polish student seeing the influx of war survivors come through his school doors.

The more we take in, the better we're doing.

- The better? - Yes.

- So you don't mind that the rooms are crowded. - No.

No, it's [a] very good cause.

So, these are all Polish kids.

Warsaw's mayor tells us the strain on his city's schools is enormous.

The 100,000 additional refugee children in Poland's capital need an education.

It's an increase of 30% just this last month.

Nazar Samodenko is 13, he's from Kyiv.

- Your mom is here. - Yes.

Um... your father?

No, he stay[ed] in Ukraine.

Nazar's father is a minister, helping fight in the war.

It took a week for Nazar to escape Ukraine with his mother.

School offers the structure of a life he's lost.

-Your favorite subject is...? Math. - Math.

- You like math. - Yes.

Is it easier being around other Ukrainian kids?

"Yes." he says, "We can talk; they understand."

Of the 4 million refugees fleeing Ukraine, half are children.

How hard is it for kids your age to live through this?

I think it's practically impossible to go through this.

It's just mind-boggling how this could happen to someone that young.

10-second trivia: Which of these US government agencies is oldest, having been founded in 1946?

Environmental Protection Agency, Centers for Disease Control, Department of Energy, or Department of Health and Human Services.

The Communicable Disease Center, which became the Centers for Disease Control, was founded in 1946.

The CDC is planning to make some changes in the days ahead.

It's director announced this week that an outside health official would be making a month-long review of the agency.

The plan is to devise new ways of giving scientific guidance to Americans.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started more than two years ago, the CDC has gotten a lot of criticism over how it's handled issues concerning mask wearing, quarantine times, and vaccine boosters.

Its reputation has taken a hit, with some Americans saying they've been frustrated by what they call "flip-flops" in the CDC's guidance.

Last spring, for instance, the healthcare agency said that Americans who were fully vaccinated no longer needed to wear masks, even when indoors.

But by last summer, it went back to recommending masks for everyone in areas where COVID-19 was spreading, as research showed vaccines did not prevent people from catching or spreading coronavirus.

Health officials say they still help prevent hospitalizations from COVID.

The CDC says never in its 75-year history did it have to make decisions so quickly based on constantly changing and often limited science.

The agency hopes to restructure, becoming more modern and better able to conduct its healthcare mission.

As far as the COVID pandemic goes, the number of new cases in America have fallen dramatically since the beginning of the year,

and health officials say vaccination and natural immunity from having had COVID before should help protect people against newer COVID versions.

According to a recent article by three American infectious disease experts, finding out how to live with COVID, rather than trying to eliminate it altogether, should be America's goal.

That's not the case in China, which still has some of the world's strictest COVID policies and they're causing controversy in Shanghai.

There's no end in sight for Shanghai's COVID-19 lockdown.

We're now in the second week of a city-wide lockdown that was only supposed to last a few days.

But now, authorities are saying the lockdown will stay in place until further notice.

COVID-19 cases in the megacity of 25 million people continues to reach record highs of more than 10,000 a day.

It's China's worst outbreak since the pandemic began.

Emotions are running high in China's financial capital; many there are angry and fed up, desperately seeking medical care and basic supplies.

The medical system in Shanghai is stretched to the limit.

Even though most COVID cases in China are recorded as asymptomatic or mild, every single case is required to go to a hospital or a quarantine facility.

And countless complaints have surfaced online of the conditions at those quarantine facilities.

Chinese social media showing this chaotic scene at a makeshift hospital in Shanghai.

We spoke to a woman who was there at the scene; you can see patients battling for limited blankets and food with no medical staff in sight.

There are even videos circulating online of children, even infants, quarantined at hospitals, separated from their parents after testing positive for COVID-19.

We don't know how many families have been impacted, but we've learned from sources that it includes children of US citizens.

But despite these enormous economic and social costs, Chinese authorities are still doubling down on its zero-COVID strategy, treating this as an all-out battle against the virus.

But this latest outbreak is putting China's zero-COVID strategy to the limit, and is also putting its people's patience to the test.

Selina Wang, CNN, Tokyo.

Since 1979, the Beast at Ohio's Kings Island amusement park has held the Guinness world record for longest wooden roller coaster.

It measured 7,359 feet long, with a ride running for 4 minutes and 10 seconds, an eternity in track time.

However, off-season refurbishing work has extended its length by 24 inches to a new record total of 7,361 feet⏤riders probably won't notice that.

But they probably will notice its steeper first drop, which has gone from 45 degrees to the nth degree, making it a track star, as long as it doesn't go off the rails.

Would or wouldn't you trust it?

Is this something you would "pine" for, tracking it down from coast to "coaster", or is there no way a scenic railway would make way beneath your seat?

I guess it depends on whether you have nerves of steel or buckle beneath the pressure.

I'm Carl Azuz.

Today's shout-out goes out to Bolton Central High school, our viewers watching from Bolton, New York.

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