Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Police Release New Images of Person of Interest in CEO's Killing; Syrian Rebels Capture Second Major City in Week-Long Offensive; Vance and Waltz Met Top Ukrainian Official Wednesday; Study Links Leaded Gasoline to U.S. Mental Health Disorders. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired December 05, 2024 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: How much will they play into how quickly law enforcement can find the suspect?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, I think it may be a giant difference, Alex, because what you see here is not just a man with a mask and a hood, but you get a picture of his face. And it is not really the kind of thing that if you passed him on the street yesterday or if you were in that Starbucks where he bought a bottle of water and two power bars that you would say, wow, I recognize that guy. But if you work with him, if he's a cousin of yours, if he's your friend, you're going to recognize him. And that's what police are counting for here.

MARQUARDT: And John, you do have some new reporting about a key piece of evidence involving a shell casing and a live round that were found at the crime scene. What do you know? And how could that speak to the motive?

MILLER: Well, that is fascinating about this case, which is there were things written on the bullets and what was written on those was delay and depose. And that is considered by detectives to possibly be a variation of what some critics called the three D's of the insurance business, deny, delay and defend, which is tactics that insurance companies, health insurance companies and other insurance companies use when they don't want to pay a claim. So that may tell us that this killer had something out for a health provider, maybe UnitedHealth, maybe all health providers or insurance companies.

But he was trying to send a message because, you know, if you're going to be writing on a bullet and, you know, that's not a lot of space to be writing on. He went to a lot of trouble to do that. And that means he's trying to tell us something.

MARQUARDT: Yes, taking the time is certainly very deliberate. So, John, we now have this variety of imagery. We also have this new evidence, we believe, of this smudged fingerprint found on the water bottle.

Of course, there are questions about fingerprints that are in databases, DNA possibly. What could investigators get from that? MILLER: Well, the smudge print could give them a partial, but they have to have something to compare it to. They have a print off the phone that they found, but they're not entirely certain that that phone belonged to the gunman. But of course, if they get a suspect and that suspect's prints match what they found on the phone, that will certainly get them a lot further towards that conclusion.

You know, we learn a lot looking at these clues. If you go back to those pictures, you know, if you see him before the murder or during the murder, he is wearing that same, appearing to have that same coat with a gray backpack. But if you look at him here in the hotel, you see the strap on his shoulder.

He's got a black backpack. Now, in the earlier photos where he has the gray backpack, police are able to track him on that e-bike going into Central Park. They catch him coming out of Central Park on another camera. There's the gray backpack. And that backpack is gone at that point.

So it appears he goes into the park on a bike wearing that backpack you're looking at right now. He comes out of the park with no backpack. It suggests strongly that he discarded that backpack in the park.

Now, yesterday, they got a mobile field force, scores of cops. They did a grid search through the entire park. They opened every garbage can, looked at every dumpster and didn't recover that. So someone in Central Park may have picked up a backpack and we don't know what was inside if anything. That could be another clue in this case.

MARQUARDT: Yes, the NYPD tracking his movements, making quick work of trying to figure out where he went and what he did. John Miller, thanks very much for your insight and your expertise.

Still ahead, a new climate study says that scientists may have figured out why our planet is warming faster than expected. We'll look at what they've learned and why it is such a cause for concern.

[04:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Syrian rebels are claiming another significant gain in driving government forces from the city of Hama. Rebels taking the city and freeing hundreds of those that they say were wrongfully detained in the central prison. It's the second major city the rebels have seized in their lightning offensive after taking Aleppo last week and shattering the stalemate in Syria's 13-year-old civil war.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is following developments for us. Ben, what's the significance of the rebels taking Hama?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, basically, they have been able in the span of a week to take a huge expanse of Syria that was before under the control of the regime. First, last Friday in the morning, we were reporting that the rebels were on the western edge of Aleppo. And by the evening, they basically controlled almost the entirety of the city.

And with Hama, they've been sort of slowly surrounding it up until this morning. And yet again, they were able to take this city of more than a million people, a city where back in 1982, Bashar al-Assad's father, his forces slaughtered somewhere between 10,000 and 25,000 people in a previous uprising against the regime in Damascus.

[04:40:02]

So what we're seeing is the regime really isn't putting up -- able to put up much of a fight. They do occasionally launch airstrikes along with the Russian Air Force against rebel targets.

But by and large, they are losing ground very, very quickly. And their old allies really aren't rushing to their help. Today, for instance, Dmitry Peskov, the chief spokesman for the Kremlin, asked about the situation in Syria.

He said that Moscow is monitoring events in Syria and remains in constant dialogue with Damascus and, in his words, will decide on military aid depending on how the situation evolves. That doesn't really ring of urgency at a time when Damascus desperately needs help as this rebel advance continues at a pace no one ever expected -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, we'll keep an eye on it. It is something to watch. Ben Wedeman, thank you so much for the report -- Alex.

MARQUARDT: Thanks, Brianna. And new today, CNN has reporting about a meeting between top Ukrainian officials as well as Vice President- elect J.D. Vance and Trump's pick for national security advisor, Congressman Mike Waltz. Now, the war in Ukraine is one of several critical international conflicts that the incoming Trump administration is going to be inheriting.

And the president-elect, Donald Trump, has said that he would put an end to the war in Ukraine on day one. State Department reporter Jennifer Hansler joins me now. So, Jennifer, what do we know about how much the end of this war, Russia's war in Ukraine, was discussed in this meeting?

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT REPORTER: Well, Alex, I'm told that was not really the aim of yesterday's meeting. Zelenskyy's top advisor, Andrew Yermak, and the deputy defense minister more wanted to start to build rapport, build a connection with Waltz and Vance. I'm told that they discussed more of their assessment of where things stand in the war. And they just wanted to form those relationships as we are looking at the start of this administration. This meeting lasted more than an hour.

It was here in Washington, D.C. And the two were able to present to the Trump administration officials where they see the battlefield standing right now and where they expect it to stand on January 20, when Trump takes office. I'm told that the Ukrainians felt pleased with how the meeting went.

They walked away thinking that they had accomplished their goals of presenting this assessment -- this objective assessment as they saw it, as well as getting to form those relationships. And I'm told that Waltz and Vance were in more of a listening mode in this conversation.

Now, Alex, it's notable that they did not meet with the pick for Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg. However, Kellogg has traveled to Ukraine. He has met Yermak before. So there wasn't a need for this sort of introductory meeting yesterday with Kellogg. They more wanted to talk to these other top Trump incoming officials, Vance and Waltz.

MARQUARDT: Yes, there is certainly a lot of concern among the Ukrainians who don't want to be forced into painful negotiations with the Russians before they're ready. Jennifer Hansler at the State Department, thank you very much.

Still ahead, a Gen X mental health crisis. A new study shows that an entire generation could have higher rates of depression, anxiety and more, all because of leaded gasoline exposure. Stay with us.

[04:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The world is warming at an alarming rate, and we're seeing the consequences from record heat waves to severe floods and devastating fires. A new report suggests clouds, or rather the lack of them, may be making matters worse. CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir is with us now.

This is so interesting, Bill. Walk us through what researchers found.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Sure, Brianna, but for context, let's start with the charts. Now, we know last year, 2023, was a doozy. Record highest temperatures going back to the 40s just on this chart, but even sooner than that.

But look at 2023, that dot in the upper right corner there, nearly off the charts. Now, scientists knew it was going to be above average because of global warming, because of sort of planet cooking pollution in the atmosphere, and because it was an El Nino year, a natural warming variability. But that jump was too high to account for both of those.

So the new science now out today suggests it may be clouds. It may be the loss of Earth's albedo effect. That is the reflection of sunlight back into space.

If you put a same size snowball, two snowballs together, you roll one in dirt, the dirty one will melt faster because it absorbs more of that sunlight. That is happening to Earth. As the poles melt, as glaciers melt, as winter ice goes away, the Earth is now absorbing a lot more energy there.

But the clouds, clouds are a natural sunscreen, and the low-level, bright low-level clouds seem to be disappearing in the last 10 years. And as a result, the planet warming up faster than science even predicted.

KEILAR: So what do we know about why there is this decline in low- lying clouds? Is it sort of like a cyclical thing that's happening?

WEIR: It could be a combination of things. It could be a nod of a combination. It could be natural ocean variations that are happening.

It could be the loss of actual shipping pollution. New regulations took a lot of sulfur dioxide out of smokestacks, which is bad for human health near the ground, but was actually good for the albedo effect. It's why some are arguing we should intentionally spray sulfur or salt water high in the atmosphere to buy humanity some more time.

[04:50:00]

Or the worst possibility is that it just could be global warming, that low-lying, bright clouds they love like a cool, moist environment. As those go away, so do the clouds, which means a feedback loop of more heat absorbed by the Earth right now. But it is one of those things, Brianna, that scientists will admit they're still figuring out.

Clouds, how they will behave. They're so complicated, so complex. But this new study is one more reason to worry.

KEILAR: Yes, maybe not a cycle, maybe unfortunately a downward spiral. Bill Weir, thank you so much. We appreciate the report and the explanation -- Alex.

MARQUARDT: Scientists say that Americans of a certain age are facing a dangerous health threat, all because of something that they've been exposed to over decades. New research suggesting a link between lead in gasoline and mental health disorders. They found that exposure to car exhaust, which contained lead up through the 1990s, caused more than 150 million excess diagnoses, including anxiety, depression and ADHD.

CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell joins us now with more. So Meg, this is quite disturbing. Obviously, leaded gasoline, very common for decades. What more are you learning?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so this was a study that looked at the potential impacts using essentially modeling of what's known about blood lead levels of people throughout the last 75 years and what's known about the connections between those lead levels and mental health disorders. We know that there's connections between lead and lower IQ and things like that. So lead was added to gasoline in the United States between 1923 and 1996 when it was banned.

And it began being phased out even before that, as we realized some of the health issues around this. And so this study looked at those levels of lead in people's blood over the years. And what they find by this modeling is that there are an estimated 151 million additional mental health disorders that were because of childhood exposure to lead in gasoline exhaust. And this, as you noted, things like anxiety and depression, ADHD, but also milder things that could have had impacts as well. That just kind of makes life a little bit harder to live, making you more neurotic, less able to focus on tasks and things like that. And because of the lead levels associated with gasoline being the highest really around the 60s and the 70s, they say the generation that would be most affected by this is those people born between 1965 and 1980 or essentially generation X.

And so this is a troubling finding. And of course, it's very backwards looking, but they say what it shows is that perhaps the impacts of lead were even smaller than we had even realized up to this point.

MARQUARDT: And Meg, now lead has been removed from gasoline, but the problem hasn't gone away, has it?

TIRRELL: No, there are many sources of lead still that are in people's homes or in the environment. So toxicologists and people who treat children in particular really warn about these things. There are in water pipes, those supposed to be taken out of those in 1986.

But if you live in a house that's older than that, you could have lead pipes. There are paints in older homes. As of 1978, that was supposed to change.

But of course, we know in older homes, you can still have lead paint, contaminated soil, food sources. So that's why pediatricians recommend that kids get tested for their blood levels at age one and two, so that you can try to mitigate these things if they are in your environment.

MARQUARDT: So is there anything that can be done for the people of this age? Is there any cure for the lead poisoning, reversing these effects?

TIRRELL: For somebody who's born back in 1965 to 1980, that's not something that this study goes into. I have actually been looking to see, are there ways that can mitigate the effects of lead on the brain? That's an early stage of research.

But I think probably the takeaways from a study like this are what kinds of services, what kinds of awareness do we need to have about the impacts of this kind of thing on people in these generations, so we can sort of better understand how they may have been affected.

MARQUARDT: Yes, really disturbing and sad. Meg Tirrell, thank you so much for sharing that reporting with us.

[04:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUARDT: And we have this just in. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield says it will not move forward with a widely criticized policy change that would have limited the amount of time that it paid for anesthesia to be used in surgeries in states including Connecticut, New York, and Missouri.

KEILAR: The company said to be clear, it never was and never will be the policy of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield to not pay for medically necessary anesthesia services. The proposed update to the policy was only designed to clarify the appropriateness of anesthesia consistent with well-established clinical guidelines. The American Society of Anesthesiologists had previously criticized the policy and called for its immediate reversal, actually calling it egregious.

MARQUARDT: Yes, you can see why that would have been tremendously worrying to a lot of people.

On a lighter subject, words and especially names are not always names as they appear. According to Babbel, these are the top mispronounced names of the year.

No surprise, Kamala Harris making an appearance on this list, also taking top spots, Chappel Roan and Zendaya. And this actor in most Irish variations, the G would be silent, but a hard G for actor Barry Keoghan.

KEILAR: I think you got that right. Also some Swedish words made it into the lexicon on the list. Snus, which is a smokeless tobacco, and flygskam, a movement that aims to discourage people from flying.

[16:00:04]

And topping the charts of music and mispronunciation, Espresso. It's not Espresso, even though it makes you feel that way. Not for music, not for coffee. I think Espresso is the vibe.

MARQUARDT: You hear a lot of Espresso. I admit, I would have said Zendaya.

KEILAR: I did too, for the longest time. And it's still difficult for me.

MARQUARDT: That just shows my age. But anyway, most of you out there probably would get Keilar and Marquardt wrong as well. So you know what, we're in the clear.

KEILAR: That's right. We would not get Jake Tapper and "The Lead" wrong. It starts right now.

END