Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Study: Adolescent Suicides Increased During Pandemic; Study: Family Members of Hospitalized COVID Patients Experiencing PTSD; 2 Big Wildfires Merge in New Mexico as Blazes Also Rage in Arizona & Nebraska; Axiom Space Astronauts Return to Earth with a "Splash"; Award-Winning Photojournalist Documents Russia's War in Ukraine; Depp Back on Stand in Defamation Case Against Amber Heard; Supreme Court Takes Up Case of High School Football Coach Who Lost His Job After Praying on the Field. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired April 25, 2022 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:30:24]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: We are learning much more about the damaging effects the pandemic has had on young people's mental health. The number of suicides among adolescents increased during 2020. And this is according to a new study looking at 14 states.

CNN senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, joins us now.

Elizabeth, tell us more about what the research found.

DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Ana, what these researchers did is they looked at adolescent suicides in 14 states, including some big states. What they found was that when you look at them at the proportion of adult suicides, it went up.

Let's look at the numbers. What they found when they looked at 2015 to 2019, when you look at all suicides, 5.9 percent of them were among adolescents, ages 10 to 19.

And then when you look at 2020, the first year of the pandemic, 6.5 percent of all suicides were among all adolescents.

Now 5.9 to 6.5, that might not seem like a huge jump, but that's a pretty significant when you are looking at two time periods that are so close together.

And that really tells you something about the toll that the pandemic took on our children -- Ana? CABRERA: Another study today describes the effects on family members

of hospitalized COVID patients. What can you tell us about this?

COHEN: Right. What these researchers did is they talked to family members who had had someone, a family member in the intensive care unit during COVID-19. This was in five states.

And what they found, of these 316 family members, three months later, 64 percent had significant symptoms of PTSD, such as anxiety and depression and high stress.

That's something that wasn't talked about enough during COVID, which is it's not just the people who get COVID. It's their family members who suffer through this incredibly stressful time -- Ana?

CABRERA: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

Wildfires are tearing through parts of the southwest and the great plains, destroying homes and killing at least one retired fire chief. In New Mexico, two big wildfires have now merged into one. And more than 54,000 acres have gone up in flames.

CNN's Lucy Kafanov is covering it for us.

Lucy, what threat are people facing right now?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, at least for folks in New Mexico, there's some hope of a reduction in the fire threat. That's because we are expecting an easing of the winds and lower temperatures in the southwest.

There's even a chance of rain and snow showers in northeastern New Mexico. That's bound to be much-needed relief for firefighters battling the two blazes that have merged into one, which have formed a perimeter of more than 180 miles, and were 12 percent contained as of Sunday night.

New Mexico's governor warning that this is just the start of what's expected to be a long and dangerous fire season.

New Mexico also sadly not alone. Evacuations have been lifted in Arizona where there's been blazes. But officials are warning of hazardous conditions as those unpredictable blazes continue to rage.

The Tunnel Fire scorching 21,000 acres of land. Just 3 percent contained as of Sunday.

And in Nebraska, where fires in the southwest portion of the state claimed the life of a retired fire chief. He was acting as a spotter. The fire raging there, estimated to have burned more than 50,000 acres so far -- Ana?

CABRERA: Lucy Kafanov, thank you.

And moments ago, the four-member crew of the first all-private mission to the International Space Station returned to earth with a spectacular splashdown off the coast of Florida.

CNN space and defense correspondent, Kristin Fisher, joins us now.

Kristin, remind us, what was this mission? And what did this crew do exactly at the ISS?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE & DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, this was essentially a research mission up at the International Space Station organized by a private U.S. company called Axiom Space.

The reason you're seeing them sitting inside of a SpaceX -- separate U.S. company -- capsule right there, a SpaceX Dragon capsule, is because SpaceX was the company that provided the transportation, the liftoff and the landing to and from the International Space Station.

And then you had NASA who was handling all of the logistics on board the space station.

It's really this complex mission where the U.S. government had to work very closely with these two private U.S. companies.

And, Ana, in terms of what these four astronauts -- and that's a complex term right there. They say they're private astronauts. Other people might say they're space tourists. But We're going to call them private astronauts.

Because they conducted more than 25 research experiments up there, everything from testing out how stem cells do in microgravity to doing something called demonstration mission on self-assembling technology for satellites. So they were kept very busy up there.

[13:35:10]

And they got a lot more time than they initially bargained for because of some weather delays. They ended up spending about 15 days up there, along with other NASA government astronauts and even some Russian cosmonauts.

What you were seeing, moments ago, the Dragon capsule splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean just off the coast of Florida.

And this is a big deal, Ana, because it's really the beginning of what Axiom Space wants to do. They want to create the world's first commercial space station, hopefully to replace the International Space Station where these private astronauts just were when it retires at the end of the decade -- Ana?

CABRERA: It's all so interesting. And to your point, they may be called space tourists by some, but they were working hard up there, 14-hour days conducting some of that research.

Kristin Fisher, thanks so much

Speaking of SpaceX, Twitter is close to a deal to sell itself to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk according to multiple reports. The deal, valued at more than $41 billion, is seen as imminent. It could be finalized at any moment.

If approved, this would put the world's richest person in charge of one of the world's most influential media platforms. Musk has repeatedly said his goal is to, quote, "bolster free speech" on the site.

My next guest has seen a lot of tragedy and death through her camera lens, four decades-worth of experiences in war zones and other disasters. But Carol Guzy says Ukraine is different. Her story is after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[13:41:31]

TETIANA SICHKAR, BUCHA RESIDENT WHO WITNESSED HER MOTHER'S DEATH: We were going back to our home and, suddenly -- when the troops every day. And suddenly, I heard a very loud shot. I saw something coming from the back of my mother's head. I screamed, "Lay Down. We all fell.

My father was going first. He turned around. He saw my mother has a bullet in her head, shot and in blood. He said to me to hide behind her body.

I hide. But I started to call her. She didn't answer. And then I tried to raise up a little bit. I saw her face in blood. She tried to breathe, but I understand that there was no chance for her to survive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: A 20-year-old Bucha resident describes the moment she saw her own mother killed as she was standing right next to her, and her father who was taken by Russian soldiers for interrogation.

The atrocities in the town of Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv, continue to come to light weeks after Russian forces left to head south and east.

Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, Carol Guzy, was there to document the aftermath in Bucha. She's joining us from Kyiv.

Carol, the pictures you took in Bucha were some of the most horrific images I've ever seen.

I know you've seen a lot of devastation and tragedy and death covering decades of wars and other disasters. What stands out most to you about what you're seeing and documenting in Ukraine?

CAROL GUZY, PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING PHOTOJOURNALIST: It's been heart wrenching, to say the least, to witness the -- the civilian toll. It's just been mindboggling what's happening here.

I mean, I think, you know, war on a battlefield between soldiers is one thing, but when you see the humanitarian crisis that's going on, and, you know, I hate to say evil, but you see bodies pulled out, one body after another, and grieving families burying their loved ones.

And I mean, these are women, children -- you know, elderly that are being killed, hurt. Their lives are totally shattered by this war, this invasion. So it's beyond heart breaking.

CABRERA: You, I understand, originally set out to document the stories of the refugees for the war, those who were fleeing the violence. What changed?

GUZY: Well, it took a long time for me decide to come. I'm not a conflict photographer by any stretch. I've covered conflict and natural disasters and have been working for 40 years as a photojournalist. But it's always been the humanitarian side.

But for some reason, in 40 years, I haven't had such a feeling of dread as I have had with this story. I debated coming. I thought it was perhaps my gut instinct saying, for my own safety, I should not -- I should sit this one out.

And now I'm starting to think it may have just been this overwhelming instinct that something really horrible was about to happen.

So, of course, when you start doing a story, you get to know people, and you get more and more involved. And I'm just going a little further than I was planning to do.

I came to Bucha. I'm going to Kharkiv probably tomorrow or the next day. Still, to do the humanitarian crisis. But -- I mean, get to know the people.

(CROSSTALK)

[13:45:07]

CABRERA: Yes, you get drawn and you can't help but feel impacted personally, and that drives you and fuels you to uncover more, to share their story, I know.

We have some pictures. And the photo we're about to show is horrible.

But, again, this is daytime TV, so we're not going to show some of the most graphic images you've captured.

I do want to ask you about this one photograph in particular, the photo of a partial face seen in a body bag. This image is haunting. It's disturbing.

Can you talk about how you came to take it?

GUZY: We were at the morgue. I mean, they had just started the groom task of pulling bodies from the mass grave. And all over Bucha there were people in homes and makeshift graves they were exhuming them.

And this was at the morgue one day where the investigators were starting to open each body bag and document for war crimes evidence. And hopefully, eventually, to get the bodies back to families for proper burial.

That one body -- there was so many body bags that whole day that we were photographing and documenting. And just -- I noticed these eyes. His eyes were opened.

And David Hume Kennerly (ph) has mentioned that he was wondering what he was thinking, what was the last thing he saw. And it's quite chilling to imagine that.

CABRERA: Absolutely. People can go online and see so many more images that you've captured in Bucha as part of your latest reporting and others reporting of your work.

But is there anything you think the world isn't seeing or understanding?

GUZY: Well, not only the gravity, but the scale of this suffering here. It's so immense. I mean, the destruction is apocalyptic. The people suffering, it's just so great and so vast.

But also, the spirit of the people. I mean, in Ukraine it just -- at least in my experience, everyone I've met has been so kind and so filled with grace. Even in the midst of this incredible tragedy.

It's just -- it brings me to my knees that the kindness of the people here and the fact that they're suffering so much. And it almost makes it worse to document it.

Because you're -- it just gets to me. They reach my heart in a way that maybe sometimes that doesn't happen. And it just makes it harder that they're going through this.

CABRERA: I know. I know.

Well, you're doing incredible work, Carol. Your work is so important.

And what you're doing on behalf of the Ukrainian people to bring this nightmarish reality to light for the rest of us at home who can see what's really happening.

So thank you for your work. And you're right, the Ukrainian spirit has shined through all of this. They're incredible people. So strong, so courageous.

Thanks again for sharing.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:52:30]

CABRERA: Actor Johnny Depp is back on the stand today and he's undergoing contentious cross-examination in his defamation case against ex-wife, Amber Heard.

Heard's defense lawyer is once again reading several new profanity- laced and disturbing text messages written by Depp out loud in court.

Depp was pressed about his alleged anger, controlling behavior and alcohol abuse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN ROTTENBORN, ATTORNEY FOR AMBER HEARD: Ms. Heard wasn't the only one who had a problem with your drinking, correct?

JOHNNY DEPP, ACTOR: Sir, if anyone had a problem with my drinking at any time in my life, it was me. The only person that I have ever abused in my life is myself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Depp is suing Heard for $50 million. The actor claims allegations of domestic abuse that Heard raised in 2018 are false and cost him his career.

The Supreme Court today is taking up the case of a former high school football coach who is fighting for the right to pray on the 50-yard line.

CNN Supreme Court reporter, Ariane De Vogue, joins us now.

Ariane, walk us through this case and what's at stake.

ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT REPORTER: Right, Ana. At the Supreme Court today, the conservative justices seemed sympathetic to arguments put forward by this high school football coach, former football coach, Joe Kennedy.

He was suspended from his job for praying at the 50-yard line. He said, basically, that God -- he had a deal with God to thank him after the games and he wanted to pray.

In the beginning of his tenure, his prayers were private. But as things moved on, suddenly, more players would join him there, members of the fans, parents.

And suddenly, the school district said, wait, this is too much, we can't have this.

They offered him an accommodation. They said you can pray in a classroom by yourself, but you can't do it here on the football field in front of the fans. And he refused that accommodation and he turned around and sued.

At the Supreme Court today, the school district basically said that they feel like, if they allowed this prayer, it would be akin to the school district allowing religious prayer, endorsing prayer, in violation of the Constitution.

And they also worried a lot about coercion, like young players feeling like, look, I've got to go pray with coach, maybe because they were too scared to say they didn't want to or maybe they wanted a slot on the team.

But the conservative justices today at the court really didn't focus on his role as a coach. They focused on his role as a private individual.

[13:55:01]

And they suggested that a teacher can give a private prayer as long as he doesn't go too far, and here he hadn't gone too far. That was the crux of it.

CABRERA: And quickly, when will we get a ruling?

DE VOGUE: Well, we expect this to be one of the biggest cases of the term. This court has been moving to give more religious liberty rights. And it should be sometime by early July.

CABRERA: All right, Ariane De Vogue, in Washington, thank you.

That does it for us. We'll see you back here tomorrow. Until then, you can always find me on Twitter, @AnaCabrera.

The news continues with Alyson and Victor after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)