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Hundreds Of Migrants Sleeping On El Paso Streets; Question Over Fate Of Russian Black Sea Commander; Teens Getting Hundreds Of Phone Notifications Daily. Aired 3:30-4pm ET

Aired September 26, 2023 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:30:00]

ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT REPORTER: That's going to clear the way for court ordered maps that will likely add another black majority district there, big win for NAACP.

But you've got to really look at the history here, because you remember it was just last term. The Supreme Court heard almost an identical case. Alabama came with this map.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: That's right. I'm having deja vu right now.

DE VOGUE: Absolutely. They came with this map, only one congressional district. The court on a five to four vote said no, you've got to go back, draw another map, either another black majority district or something like it.

Alabama goes back to the drawing board, comes up in July with another map with only one district. The lower court was furious here, said look, you're in defiance of the Supreme Court. Alabama said, I don't care, we're going to go to the Supreme Court anyway, just ask. We're going to say that we can distinguish the maps this time around. The Supreme Court said no, dice today in an order with no dissents.

Here's the important takeaway. This is a big important case because it's going to likely give another seat to Democrats there, but more than anything, it's going to send a resounding message to other states involved in similar disputes. The Supreme Court was really definitive today. Nobody noted any kind of dissent on this order.

KEILAR: I'm trying to wonder what the internal conversations were like. Maybe the Supreme Court didn't really mean it, guys.

DE VOGUE: Yeah.

KEILAR: I don't know.

DE VOGUE: It was odd.

KEILAR: It was odd. All right, Ariane, thank you so much for that. Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Now to a glimmer of hope for easing the migrant surge at the southern border. A source tells CNN that crossings into the El Paso area have been dropping since Mexico pledged to deport migrants from its own northern border cities.

On Monday, encounters dropped by about 30% to fewer than 1400. That number though is still higher than September's daily average of about 1200 a day. To cope with that influx, El Paso is turning an old middle school into a migrant shelter. In the last 10 days, the city has helped more than 7,000 migrants with housing, but hundreds more are now unhoused, sleeping on the city streets and its parks.

We're joined now by John Martin. He's the Deputy Director of Opportunity for the Homeless in El Paso. John, thank you so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us. The mayor of El Paso says the city is at a breaking point. How would you describe the situation there?

JOHN MARTIN, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, OPPORTUNITY CENTER FOR THE HOMELESS: I would actually agree with the mayor. We've been anticipating this for the last three to four weeks, just based upon the numbers that we're seeing and those numbers being the encounters, those in custody, and of course the releases.

SANCHEZ: And John, the significance here is not only in the numbers, but in the demographics, the types of migrants that are crossing the border. You're seeing a lot more families, right?

MARTIN: We are seeing a lot more families, and I would tell you that a good -- the majority of them, probably close to 85% to 90%, originate from the country of Venezuela. And as a general rule, and there's always some exceptions to that, but the Venezuelans that are coming to us are unresourced. And so they don't necessarily have funds to be able to continue their travels within the United States. That's also leading to that breaking point, because we're seeing longer stays within the shelter system as a direct result. And we still have a continual flow of new faces coming in on a daily basis.

SANCHEZ: So we've seen the pictures from your city, and they're heartbreaking, because you see these groups of people, essentially just camped out in the street. I imagine it taxes you to see this happen.

MARTIN: It truly does. And as a result of the large numbers, many of our shelters have been focusing on those families with children. And so the ones that you see out on the street seem to be -- or tend to be the adult single male population.

We simply don't have space. So the announcement by the mayor with regard to additional capacity has been very welcome. And the city has also come to us, and provided many hotel rooms as well. As of this past weekend, I believe they had over a thousand in hotel rooms. So they're trying to decompress as we speak.

SANCHEZ: John, what do you think it'll take to get this under control? How soon can El Paso get a handle on the situation?

MARTIN: Well, I'm very proud of the fact that we all work jointly, and that includes the city of El Paso, the county of El Paso, and multiple NGOs within our community. Simply stated, we simply don't have enough capacity at this point. But with the efforts that are underway, I believe that we are heading in the right direction. And in truth, be told, the reality of it is, we're just seeing a large number of people. And we're still seeing between 40 and 60 a day, just per program and there are multiple programs that are coming in.

[15:35:05]

And so, but you take that, combine that with the extended shelter stays, that's what's happening to the emergency shelters within our community.

SANCHEZ: John, I heard you mention local programs there within the city and the county, but what about the state and federal government? Are you getting the assistance you need there? What's your message to folks on Capitol Hill?

MARTIN: Well, the reality of it is the city of El Paso elected to bring in the Texas Division of Emergency Management and as a direct result, we're seeing assistance not only with regard to the sheltering component, but we're also seeing assistance as it relates to transportation.

I know that this past Saturday there were five buses that left the community. It's my understanding that we've had others since then, none on Sunday. And so that does help to decompress, but we still focus in working with the migrant and their destination of choice.

So we take advantage of those buses if by chance their destination matches up with the location that the buses are going to. And so I think the efforts are well at this point. It may be a bit premature to say, has it been successful? Are we going to see less people overall? But I do believe that we're heading in the right direction as a community.

SANCHEZ: John Martin, we appreciate you sharing your perspective with us. Thanks so much for the time.

MARTIN: Thank you. Bye.

SANCHEZ: Of course. Still plenty more news to come on CNN News Central. There is doubt over the fate of one of Russia's top military commanders. The Russian Defense Ministry releasing this video that appears to show their Black Sea Fleet commander alive and attending a military meeting this coming after Ukraine said he was killed in a strike. We're going to discuss when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:41:29]

KEILAR: Questions swirling about whether a top Russian commander is alive. Ukraine Special Forces claimed that they had killed the head of Russia's Black Sea Fleet Admiral Viktor Sokolov in a recent strike on the fleet's headquarters in Crimea, but the Kremlin has since shared a video purportedly showing Sokolov in a defense meeting. CNN cannot confirm the veracity of that video, but now Ukraine is clarifying their information. And when asked by CNN's Christiane Amanpour today, Kyiv's new Defense Minister was noncommittal.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Minister, can you confirm that the head of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, Viktor Sokolov, is in fact dead or alive?

RUSTEM UMEROV, UKRAINE DEFENSE MINISTER: Well, first of all, he is in our temporary occupied territory, so he is not -- he should not be there at all. So if he is dead, it's a good news for everybody that we are continuing to occupy our territory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: All right, let's talk about this with Retired Army Major John Spencer. All right, what is your read on this, considering that it's also prudent to be very skeptical of what the Russians say about this kind of thing?

MAJ. JOHN SPENCER, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Absolutely. I mean, the Russians lie more than they tell the truth, but it's almost unnecessary vagueness. If he's alive, show him on TV. I mean, it reminds me of Baghdad Bob. Like there's no problem here.

KEILAR: This is the picture that they're showing, if we can put it back up actually so that we can see it. They're showing a picture of him in a meeting. There's this picture here. I mean, what -- what do you make of this? It's not definitive?

SPENCER: Not definitive. No -- no idea when it was taken. It looks like he's in a hospital bed. I mean, it's just -- it's just crazy. It's unnecessary.

KEILAR: Would his death, if it were to have happened, or if he's just taken out of commission, is that something that would have a noticeable impact on Russian capabilities on the Black Sea fleet's capabilities?

SPENCER: Absolutely. I mean, they're a top-down military. They take instructions from these senior leaders that you can't just replace. So not only the fact that he was hit, but the headquarters and all those other personnel, right? If you can't identify bodies, you don't know who they were, but there was a lot of officers. It's going to have a serious impact to the Black Sea fleet.

KEILAR: What would that change? I mean, if they're operating comfortably out of headquarters and now they're worried about being targeted by the Ukrainians, what does that change about how they operate there?

SPENCER: I mean, it changes everything. It changes the rotation of the ships. It changes their strikes. Because the Black Sea fleet, let's be clear, it's the force that bombs Ukrainian civilian sites. It's going to upset all of that, cause their momentum, their safety, like you said. If they're not safe in their headquarters in Sevastopol, then they're not safe anywhere.

KEILAR: This is part of a concentration, we should be clear, that we've seen by the Ukrainians on Crimea, and we've heard it from the president. They want Crimea back. What do you make of this concerted effort in Crimea?

SPENCER: I mean, I think it's the right strategy. Ukraine -- Crimea is Ukraine, but Ukraine has to win back Crimea to basically have a strategic victory of this campaign. And they're doing it. They're making it untenable for Russian military forces to stay in Crimea, which is a path through the victory.

KEILAR: What makes it untenable? At what point do you think the Russians say, all right, this isn't -- this isn't sustainable for us?

SPENCER: Right, well, I can't get inside the head of Putin because it's not rational to continue thus far, but as they continue to use -- to lose these billion-dollar ships and these strategic assets, you would think that that would make a reasonable and rational decision. But clearly their air defenses are weak and they have all these weaknesses to allow Ukraine to strike with cardboard drones and things like that so easily that there has to be a change, you think, for Russia.

[15:45:12]

KEILAR: They need to get the Kerch Bridge. And we've seen a couple of attacks on that at least and get through this land bridge to that area. Can they do that? What are the challenges?

SPENCER: I mean, of course, cutting the land bridge is a much bigger challenge, but we're already seeing them have identifiable, recognized breakthroughs of the suburban line, the defensive lines, which are heading towards cutting that land bridge.

The Kerch Bridge is pretty easy to strike. It's just how much more do they want to strike it, but it's a key to Crimea as well.

KEILAR: Yeah, we'll see. It seems like if anything, you can be sure they will attempt it again from what we've seen.

SPENCER: Absolutely.

KEILAR: John, great to have you. Thank you so much.

SPENCER: Thank you.

KEILAR: And still ahead, the impact of cell phone use on teens. This is something I think so many parents want to know about. What a new report says about the effect on their health and on their education.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:50:23]

SANCHEZ: A new report says that teenagers are getting swamped by cell phone messaging. Common Sense Media analyzed data that showed young people are bombarded daily with hundreds of notifications. And this could impact their health and schooling. CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here with more. So Sanjay, walk us through these findings?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, and I'll preface by saying I'm a father of three teenage girls. Boris, I pay really close attention to this. It's interesting when you look at the findings, people have a lot of speculation how much usage of these devices is going on. What they found was that for 11- to 17-year-olds, on average, it's about four and a half hours a day of usage. 16% used it for two hours or less a day. 13% used it for nine hours or more. So a fair amount.

But to your point about the notifications, I think this was interesting to a lot of people. On average, people got about 237 notifications a day. To which they responded to nearly a quarter of them, about 46 notifications. Which means that, you know, four times an hour for 12 hours, Boris, they are being diverted. Their attention is being diverted away from whatever they're doing.

If you're working on your device and it's all, you're controlling that, that's one thing. When you start getting bombarded with notifications, that makes it even more challenging to have attention to things.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, Sanjay, you know the brain better than anyone I know personally. And you've been doing a lot of reporting over the years about specifically the issue of Americans and tech use, on phones, social media, et cetera. How concerning is the impact that this is having on people?

GUPTA: Well, you know, the Surgeon General's office is listing this as a primary public health concern at this point, the connection between devices and teens mental health. I think this task switching, which I was just describing, which the device is really enable, that's a pretty significant problem.

But one thing I will tell you, Boris, is that there's a lot of the same behavior among adults as well. And I think this is relevant. We point a lot to adolescents, but if you look at adults, they are -- they are on average using the phone a similar amount of time. They pick up their phone 100 to 300 times a day on average 97% of them own a phone.

But here's the thing also, 87% are interacting with their phones at a time when they should be asleep for sure between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. So I think there's a lot of modeling of this sort of behavior that's going on from young people watching what is happening to older people. The question is, are their brains going to respond differently? And we just don't -- we don't know the answer to that.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, I'm glad you said that it's not just teens because I was thinking in my head, I'm like, oh, God, I'm guilty of that. I look at my phone hundreds of times a day, a lot of notifications. How could we have a healthier relationship with our cell phones then? GUPTA: I think there's some practical things. And again, I say this

with humility. This is challenging. But I think practical things like really programming do not disturb time, so people really don't interact with their phone at that time. We set limits on social media use for our girls, for teenage girls. There's things like that.

I think there's two things that really struck me when we're reporting on this. One is to change the way you think about a phone. Instead of a toy, think of it like a high-powered tool, like a car. We let our kids drive, but it comes with lots of training, lots of responsibility, and sort of a gravity of the use and the appreciation of it. And also something that Catherine Price says, Boris, maybe you'll appreciate this specifically.

Every time you're about to pick up your phone, ask yourself three questions. What for? Why now? And what else? What else could I be doing? Breaking the habits, breaking the cycles can make a big difference in terms of developing that healthy relationship.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, I've got to figure out something else to occupy my time with when I'm bored in line or somewhere else. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, always great to get your perspective. Thanks so much.

GUPTA: You got it. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Of course. Stay with CNN News Central. We're back in just moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:58:42]

KEILAR: It is a big week here at CNN. CNN Max is about to launch and our Jim Sciutto is helping to lead the charge.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, so we're glad to hang out with him as a trio.

KEILAR: That's right.

SANCHEZ: So the last time in at least a while.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Right?

KEILAR: On TV.

SANCHEZ: On TV.

KEILAR: We'll still hang out in the hallways.

SCIUTTO: For sure, plus the studio's right next door. So you may not have heard at home, but CNN Max is launching tomorrow. I'm going to have a show in the afternoon on CNN Max in addition to covering breaking news. It's going to have so much of the stuff. You guys love on CNN, Christiane Amanpour, Wolf Blitzer, you name it, plus a lot of new stuff and I'm going to be part of that and I'm really looking forward to it.

SANCHEZ: And the door is always open if you ever want to come back. I hope the same is true, we can pop in?

SCIUTTO: So, yeah, I mean, you know, if you -- you know, with an invitation, you know, I mean --

(CROSSTALK)

SCIUTTO: I'm looking at the mail, I guess.

KEILAR: If I bang on this wall.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, exactly.

KEILAR: Will you hear me during the show.

SCIUTTO: It literally is on the other side of this big red wall in there. No, but it's going to be exciting. Listen -- listen, you guys can watch at home like this, but you could also watch via the Max app, which you can get pretty much anywhere. And we're going to be covering all the stuff that CNN does the best.

KEILAR: And it's on demand and no commercial breaks?

SCIUTTO: There are no commercial breaks, no.

KEILAR: That is wild.

SCIUTTO: So that might mean --

KEILAR: It's a whole new world, Jim Sciutto.

[16:00:00]

SCIUTTO: -- it want me a little less tea, you know, a diet coke. But I've really enjoyed working with you guys here.

SANCHEZ: That's right.

SCIUTTO: And I know we're still be in each other's lives --

SANCHEZ: Absolutely.

SCIUTTO: -- and work and hair, occasionally as well.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

KEILAR: We've had the best time.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: Yeah, Jim Sciutto, over here anytime you want.

KEILAR: We've had the best time together dancing.

SCIUTTO: We do.

KEILAR: -- and doing the news, of course.

SCIUTTO: We do. We did dance on television.

KEILAR: We did.

SCIUTTO: Remember that moment.

KEILAR: It was half decent.

SANCHEZ: Should we dance right now?

SCIUTTO: Next time, they might get yelled at.

KEILAR: Let's not.

SANCHEZ: Thanks for being with us.

SCIUTTO: Thanks guys.

SANCHEZ: The Lead with Jake Tapper starts right now.

Jim, come back any time.

SCIUTTO: I will.

KEILAR: Good luck, Jim.