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More Than 100 Civilians Evacuated From Bombarded Steel Plant; Finland And Sweden Still Undecided On Joining NATO; Third Day Of Manhunt For Alabama Murder Suspect, Corrections Officer; Parents Struggle To Find Baby Formula Amid Recall, Shortages; GDP Dip, Rising Inflation Fuel U.S. Recession Worries; Country Music Star Naomi Judd Dies At 76. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired May 01, 2022 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:17]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINE (through translator): Nice to meet you. Thank you for coming.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): We are visiting you to say thank you for your fight for freedom. Our commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): As of now a special rescue operation is being carried out by the Azov regiment. We get civilians out of the rubble with ropes. We hope this process will continue and we'll be able to evacuate all the civilians.

GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON (R), ARKANSAS: Wherever you have high inflation pressures and you have interest rates going up. Add that to the supply chain woes that we have. We've got challenges.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, Naomi Judd to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's going to be tragic but it's going to be joyous on so many levels.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Sunday.

And we begin this hour in Ukraine with a glimmer of hope from one of its bleakest sites. These are new images from the besieged city of Mariupol. Ukraine's president says more than 100 civilians were evacuated today from the steel plant which had been the final stand of resistance.

Hundreds of people have been huddled in the basement there for weeks with food, water, medicine running out. Just living there in desperation. And several hundred are still there. Evacuations are due to resume just hours from now. But reports of new Russian shelling could jeopardize that.

And the city has been relentlessly bombarded since the first days of the Russian invasion. The sprawling complex, as you can see, has been reduced to ruins. Every single building appears to be gutted or leveled.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a surprise visit to Kyiv with a congressional delegation. She is now the top U.S. elected official to meet with Zelenskyy there. And she reassured him that America is committed to Ukraine's fight for democracy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PELOSI: We believe that we are visiting you to say thank you for your fight for freedom, that we are on the frontier of your freedom and that your fight is a fight for everyone. And so our commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Let's go live to Ukraine's capital. CNN's Sara Sidner is there in Kyiv.

Sara, what can you tell us about the evacuations from Mariupol?

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: You know, we've been hearing about the people trapped there. They were worried about even getting enough oxygen as they've been trapped under this really sort of labyrinth type of situation, of bunkers underneath that steel plant. Some of them, yes, evacuated. Dozens of people. We are hearing stories now and reports of what it was like under there.

There wasn't enough food, not enough water, not enough oxygen, and people really feeling suffocated, also terrified having heart palpitations, people feeling their heart was going to stop every time they would hear bombing wondering if they were going to survive after all of this time. Clearly, there is good news for those who have been able to leave to get out of that situation after being trapped for such a long time.

But, you know, look, Mariupol is a whole different place than it was when they first went into that bunker, some of them, it is a place that has been destroyed and it continues to be bombarded. There is deep fear among any of the civilians there about whether or not they will survive as they stream out for their lives. So it has been one of those situations where there's both good news and troubling news as people are finally released.

That is the good news. The troubling news, as you mentioned earlier is that the bombardments continue. There is always the fear that that is going to end in deaths -- Pam.

BROWN: Yes. Understandably. Yes, it's just anyone's worst nightmare, and you also have new images of a grim reality in Mariupol of mass graves to deal with the civilian losses. SIDNER: Yes, there are some video that CNN received gives you a real

look at what's happening and how many people are dying on a regular basis. One of the people there who is digging graves, you see these mass graves and they are saying, look, we are getting 50 or so people per day in the outskirts of Mariupol that they're just having to bury. Many of them are unidentified. The bodies being buried without identifying people and then families having to come forth and trying to figure out where their loved one is.

[18:05:04]

They are marked by crosses with numbers on them. It is a really grim picture of what is happening and they don't see this stopping any time soon. This isn't just the only one. There is one that is very close to Mariupol on the outskirts of that town. And then, you know, as you go further on there are some satellite images of more places just like that, with rows and rows and rows of freshly dug graves as this war continues. It is a very disappointing, very disheartening view of what is going on in that area -- Pam.

BROWN: All right, Sara, thank you so much.

Well, one of Vladimir Putin's arguments for his unprovoked attack on a peaceful neighbor was concern that NATO would expand his aggression. It actually improved the chances of NATO becoming exactly what he feared, broader, stronger and closer. Within days, Sweden and Finland are expected to make a decision about joining the military alliance.

And if you look right here, this is what you see. NATO would almost double its land border with Russia if Finland joins and the alliance would be much better positioned around the Baltic Sea. The possible expansion has rattled Moscow enough to threaten deploying nuclear weapons in the Baltic region. Right here.

Joining me now is Ian Campbell. He is the head of the U.S. diplomatic in Finland.

Hi, Ambassador. Thank you so much for coming on. How concerning is it that NATO expansion with Finland, Sweden or both will provoke even more Putin aggression?

IAN CAMPBELL, CHANGE D'AFFAIRES, U.S. EMBASSY IN FINLAND: Well, first of all, thanks, Pam, for having me on, I appreciate it. The saber- rattling that we've seen from Russia in the last couple of months is not really all that different from what the Finnish folks are used to seeing from Russia for the past several years. We have seen airspace incursions. We've seen cyberattacks, we've seen GPS spoofing and spamming.

So this is something they've sort of grown accustomed to and the nuclear threat is a different order of magnitude but again not a particularly new argument from the Russians.

BROWN: So when you say particularly a different order of magnitude, what do you mean by that? Is there actually more concern that Russia could deploy nuclear weapons than in the past? CAMPBELL: I don't think so. It's not really a question of that because

if you talk to experts in the region, both military analysts and a lot of the key politicians who live here, they'll tell you, you know, Russians had nuclear weapons in this region for a long time that had this kind of range. So this isn't something that they've just started thinking about doing that's always been here and just nobody has been talking about it.

BROWN: A couple of weeks ago the widespread reporting was that Sweden and Finland were inching closer to applying. Now CNN and other news agencies are emphasizing that they're undecided. So is Finland backing away a bit? What's going on?

CAMPBELL: Well, the parliament is in a closed-door session now. They are studying the report that the government put out a couple of weeks back on the new security situation. They will probably have that wrapped up in the next week or so.

And then they are going to wait for the government to come out with the second report that will pose the specific question about whether or not Finland should pursue a NATO membership, and on the basis of that question, then the parliament will have to voice an opinion which will be the sort of trigger if they decide to go that way for the government to then actually make the formal application to NATO.

BROWN: But --

CAMPBELL: So sources now are saying probably in the middle of May they'll be close to that or ready to sort of come public with that. But we're just going to wait and see what happens.

BROWN: But do you expect Finland to apply to be part of NATO membership? I mean, there's a lot of different steps but based on your position there in Finland, is that what you expect?

CAMPBELL: Well, if you look at the public opinion numbers they have been high and they have been sustained high, 65 percent or more. And if you look at the informal polling of parliamentarians, although they haven't talked to everybody but the folks who have been answering, it sort of reflects what the public opinion numbers are, around about 65 percent or 70 percent of parliamentarians who've voiced an opinion have said that they are in favor.

But we don't want to get ahead of them and their process. It's been very deliberate process. And it's one that is going to really sort of upend about 70 years of security policy for them. So we want to make sure that they have the political space to make that decision in a measured way and so far it looks like they're doing just that.

BROWN: Yes. Let's talk a little bit more about that. You mentioned that Finnish report. And that government report noted that it is likely that the country and NATO member countries that are aspiring for this will be subjected to external influence and pressure during the membership talks and the transition phase.

So what methods could Russia use to try and dissuade Finland from joining? What are the big concerns on that front?

[18:10:05]

CAMPBELL: Well, it goes back to what I was saying earlier. I think it's a lot of the same sort of bag of dirty tricks and the playbook that the Russians have used to date. Disinformation campaigns, I think you'll see a lot more of that. We've already seen some of it. Cyberattacks, we've already seen some of that. President Zelenskyy as you know addressed the Finnish parliament.

And while he was addressing the Finnish parliament the Foreign Ministry and the Defense Ministry Web sites both got hacked. We'll probably see more airspace incursions and things of that nature.

BROWN: Yes. And it's interesting, you noted how public opinion is in favor of Finland joining NATO. But, before this war, this latest war, it wasn't in favor of it. I mean, most people in Finland actually thought they were safer outside of the alliance. Now that has changed. Of course, though, we know, Russia has attacked Ukraine in the past. So what is it about this war that has shifted public opinion there so much?

CAMPBELL: I think the naked aggression was a real shock to the system, both for the body politic and for the political leadership. Finland has had a unique situation because of geography and because of the border, of being able to have conversations with Russia's leadership cadre and they had sort of modus vivendi with the Russian leadership, and in just as many other European countries found out on February 24th, you know, Vladimir Putin was lying to them just as he was lying to everybody else. And it really shook both the people and the government, I think, in a way that nobody was expecting.

BROWN: Yes. For sure. Understandably.

Well, thank you so much, Ambassador Ian Campbell. I appreciate you staying up late for us. It's 1:11 a.m. there in Helsinki. We really appreciate it.

CAMPBELL: Happy to be here. Thanks.

BROWN: And head's up for CNN's big interview tomorrow morning. Charge D'Affaires Kristina Kvien gives her first interview since U.S. diplomats returned to Ukraine. That's tomorrow morning at 9:00 Eastern on CNN NEWSROOM.

And coming up next, police now offering up to $10,000 for information about a missing murder suspect who vanished with a sheriff's deputy.

And meantime, we have new video coming into CNN showing the aftermath of a pedal-powered bar that crashed in Atlanta injuring 15 passengers.

And all eyes on the Federal Reserve's next move as inflation hits Americans in the wallet. Our financial expert has advice on how to handle your money right now.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. And we'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:16:49]

BROWN: Day three of a massive manhunt for an Alabama corrections officer who disappeared with a violent murder suspect. She was reportedly transporting to court. The U.S. Marshal Service is now offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading them to the missing pair.

CNN's Nadia Romero is following this for us. So, Nadia, these two have been missing since Friday morning. Do officers have any leads?

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we spoke with the sheriff just this evening and he says that they have a number of leads that they're working on including going through different video evidence. They are trying to figure out what vehicle they might have left in because her patrol car was spotted abandoned in a shopping mall. They are going through all these leads but they don't have anything confirmed at this hour.

But the sheriff was able to provide me some more details about who Vicki White is. So take a look. She's been with the sheriff's office for nearly 17 years. She's been the assistant director of corrections for several years now. And he says that she worked in the halls of the detention center with access to all the prisoners including inmate Casey White. He also says that she put in her retirement papers on Thursday which would have been the day before the escape. But he says he's just as shocked as anyone that this happened, that she was well liked and well respected in the department.

The U.S. Marshals, as you mentioned, Pamela, issuing a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of inmate Casey White. And they say it's because of his long list of convictions. That's why the U.S. Marshals and the sheriff are so worried about Vicki White. So you can see there, the long list of convictions dating back to 2019, robbery, attempted murder, kidnapping, and that is why he was serving 75 years in prison.

It was back in 2020 prosecutors say he told them that he killed 59- year-old Connie Ridgeway. You can see her here in pictures with her two sons, Austin and Cameron. She was murdered in her apartment in a rural part of Alabama back in 2015 and Ridgeway told prosecutors that he did it. Now he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity according to our news partners at WAFF but he was being charged with capital murder charges and that's why he was back at the Lauderdale County Detention Center.

Now police say that he was trying to escape back in 2020 and part of his plan was to take a hostage. Listen to Connie Ridgeway's son, Austin, talk about what this means for their family and Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton as he talked about that foiled attempt for him to escape. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SHERIFF RICK SINGLETON, LAUDERDALE COUNTY, ALABAMA: We discovered that plan and, you know, as a result he was shipped back to the Department of Corrections at that time. You know, again, we had a policy in place and we reiterated that policy with him, that he always have an escort wherever he went.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMERO: That did not happen on Friday. He was escorted solely by Corrections Officer Vicki White and that's why Ridgeway's family says they can't believe this happened. Let's also take one last look at Casey White. You can see there that he looks very different depending on if he has hair or not.

[18:20:04]

But he does have distinguishing tattoos, a rebel flag that says southern pride, and he's 6'9" tall. So he should stick out -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right. Nadia Romero, thank you so much.

Well, parents searching for baby formula more often than not are finding empty store shelves. A recall and supply chain issues are creating a worrisome shortage. It's gotten so bad that some stores are limiting how much baby formula customers can buy at one time. And prices are surging.

CNN's Polo Sandoval is looking into this, and Paula, this just seems like a perfect storm hit some families here.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is a perfect storm, Pamela. It's been ongoing literally for months as parents struggle to find really some of this formula for their babies. In the most recent development is the release of a complaint that was filed by a former employee at Abbott Nutrition that was just released recently, just a few days ago by the House Appropriations Committee. At least the chair on that committee.

And that complaint actually lays out these concerns that this former employee had, that about Abbott Nutrition that it was essentially hiding safety problems at a plant in Sturgis, Michigan, and also at that Michigan plant that manufactured three popular brands of this baby formula that we want to show you. Just some of those different brands that were recalled that eventually led to that massive recall and some big concerns for parents.

And these products were actually recalled in February after reports of four infants that they fell ill. Two of them died because of a bacterial infection. I want you to hear directly from a doctor as he explains how this potential contamination of this baby formula could have happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MICHAEL CHANG, PEDIATRIC INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST: There was an infection called Cronobacter sakazakii, and as a pediatric infectious diseases, you know, specialist, any time we hear about that bacterial infection in infants we really start to think about contaminated infant powdered formula specifically.

Now liquid formulas, the pre-mixed formulas, those are actually prepared sterile. Powdered formulas are not. But Cronobacter does exist naturally, just kind of in our environment and so the contamination of formulas can happen both during the manufacturing process as well as once you get it home and you open up the container.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Now these concerns began to surface, Abbott Nutrition released various statements saying that they are currently working with the Food and Drug Administration to implement corrective action. And in this statement that was released just a few days ago the company writing that a thorough review of all available data indicates that the infant formula products at our Sturgis facility is not likely the source of infection in the reported cases and that there was not an outbreak caused by products from the facility.

So that's important to keep in mind. But really in the end, Pamela, this is a story about the parents, the parents that have for months now, throughout the various parts of the country, have been struggling to find this baby formula and then you also have various parents with children with special dietary needs, for example.

Those are even harder to find. So, I've heard about multiple organizations throughout the country, at least one nonprofit that I read about in Massachusetts essentially trying to collect this baby infant formula so that some of these parents, especially those that have been struggling economically, can actually have it.

Because when you look at this list of not just the symptoms that come with that, add to that those concerns for these parents that are just trying to keep their children healthy. They are the ones that are really hurting not just because of this recall but also supply chain issues that we're still feeling, still today.

BROWN: Yes. For sure. Polo Sandoval, thank you.

SANDOVAL: Thanks, Pamela.

BROWN: An alleged drunk driving crash throws passengers on a so-called pedal pub into the street. The story is just ahead.

Plus, another interest rate hike is expected as food and housing prices rise. A personal finance expert joins me next to discuss what you can do now to deal with an uncertain economy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:28:22]

BROWN: The driver of an electric pedal-powered bar in Atlanta has been charged with driving under the influence after it tipped over trying to make a turn. You are looking at a new video right here from just after the so-called pedal pub crashed, sending its passengers sprawling across the road. Police say 15 people were hurt, none of them seriously.

Well, the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates another half percentage point this week to combat rising inflation, and there are more signs of a looming recession. Supply chain shortages, rising labor costs, a persistent pandemic and global instability from Russia's war on Ukraine.

Joining me now is personal finance expert Lynnette Khalfani-Cox.

Hi, Lynnette. So a lot of Americans are feeling really worried right now with all this uncertainty. Do you expect a recession? Do you think a federal recession is inevitable?

LYNNETTE KHALFANI-COX, CEO, ASKTHEMONEYCOACH.COM: I don't think that a recession is inevitable. Remember, a recession is technically once we have two consecutive quarters of declining GDP. We had one, it was a surprise, I think, to a lot of economists but most experts are saying we're not going to that again. But we have all of these kind of worrying signs that you just mentioned which kind of feels like, for consumers or the average American kind of like the perfect storm financially.

BROWN: But there are positive signs, right, in the economy as well. The low unemployment rate. That is usually a positive sign for the economy. So how do we make sense of this mixed bag we're seeing?

KHALFANI-COX: Well, I think that the average person has to really plan for the unexpected, you know, you kind of hope for the best but plan for the worst.

[18:30:03]

And there's a number of strategies that folks can use if we're going to keep dealing with this persistent inflation and these rising runaway costs that we are seeing as well as the potential for a recession. So, really, the first thing that I would tell people to do is just kind of sell stuff, right? So many of us have way too much stuff in our houses, in our apartments, in our condos and townhouses, wherever we might be living.

Go in your garage and look in your basement, look in the attic, go around the house and look at all those electronics, clothes, books, household goods, the stuff that honestly you really don't any -- you know, that you no longer want, need or use, and sell some of that stuff. Raise some cash because, again, cash is always king in an uncertain environment.

BROWN: Yes, it's so funny you say that. If my husband was watching right now, he'd be like, see, I have been telling you we need to clear out the house of all this junk that we have. You know, we need to be selling our stuff. But I think those are some great tips right there as we try to figure out how to navigate this.

I want to ask you about this new poll from "The Washington Post" that says 94 percent of Americans are upset or concerned about inflation. What is your reaction to that?

KHALFANI-COX: Well, I think it's -- there's no question that inflation has hit everybody's wallets, right? We're seeing higher prices of course at the gas pump. We're seeing higher prices for food, higher prices for things like health care costs, and so it's not a surprise, frankly, that a lot of people are saying that inflation is a real concern. But, again, there's ways that people can deal with that.

In addition to the thing that I mentioned before, like selling stuff, you can do strategies like using windfalls appropriately. So if you come into a lump sum of cash and that's what a windfall is, anything outside of your normal paycheck, if you have, say, an income tax refund check, a bonus on the job, you know, some money that you're coming to from insurance proceeds, a divorce settlement, anything. Any kind of a lump sum of cash you absolutely need to use that wisely.

I'd suggest you put it aside for savings or knock out some debt. And then even when you're trying to spend whether it's at the, you know, grocery store or whatever, you should use substitutions as well. And when I say substitutions, I mean, like for everyday stuff, everybody has to buy like, you know, the milk, the bread, the kind of stuff at the groceries, the plastic goods and, you know, whatnot.

Don't just buy the brand names that you're used to buying when you go in the store. A very simple fix. Again, dealing with inflation, is to buy the store brand item. It will save you 15 percent to 30 percent right off the bat and you don't have to have such, you know, brand loyalty to a particular random of milk, let's say, or particular type of, you know, toilet paper.

BROWN: Right.

KHALFANI-COX: Because, again, being -- leaning to use a substitution is a way to save some money right now.

BROWN: Well, these are so helpful, Lynnette. Thank you. Great having you on the show. And I'm sure we'll be having you back as this conversation continues.

KHALFANI-COX: Thank you, Pamela. Great to join you.

BROWN: Still ahead on this Sunday, the death of Naomi Judd. We're going to take a closer look at her successes and her struggles as the tributes keep pouring in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:38:05]

BROWN: Country music fans this weekend are mourning the unexpected death of Grammy winner Naomi Judd. In Nashville, Judd's passing is lending a somber note to an annual event at the Country Music Hall of Fame. Naomi and Wynonna Judd are being inducted in a ceremonies currently underway, honored for their decades of chart-topping songs.

But as fellow artists and fans flood social media with prayers and remembrances, Naomi Judd's death is highlighting another fact about her life, her long struggle with severe depression and anxiety.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAOMI JUDD, COUNTRY MUSIC SINGER: Because they see me in rhinestones, you know, with glitter in my hair. That really is who I am, but then I would come home and not leave the house for three weeks, and not get out of my pajamas. Not practice normal hygiene. It was really bad. What I've been through is extreme. My final diagnosis was severe depression, treatment resistant, because they tried me on every single thing they had in their arsenal.

They really felt like if I lived through this I want someone to be able to see that they can survive because there's 40 million of us out there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: CNN's Chloe Melas has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER (voice-over): Country music legend Naomi Judd was one half of the duo of the Judds. Naomi Judd was born Diana Ellen Judd in Kentucky in January 1946. According to the Judds' official Web site, after the birth of her two daughters, Wynonna and Ashley, the family moved to Tennessee where Naomi Judd worked as a nurse.

By 1980, she began pursuing a musical career for herself and Wynonna. The pair making appearances on a local morning show as a professional acts. Eventually, they produced a string of major hits. Their first single, "Had a Dream, For the Heart" released in 1983, reached number 17 on the Billboard Country Chart.

[18:40:11]

Their next single, "Mama He's Crazy," became the number one song on country radio. That won the Judds their first Grammy in 1984. Over the course of seven years, the Judds won five Grammys and had 14 number one singles. They sold more than 20 million records.

ASHLEY JUDD, DAUGHTER OF NAOMI JUDD: Which ones Cole Porter?

MELAS: Younger daughter, Ashley Judd, became a celebrity in her own right as an actress. For Naomi Judd, a diagnosis of hepatitis C, a potentially chronic and deadly viral illness, forced her to retire from performing in 1990.

N. JUDD: We don't have a cure yet. It's a virus that causes cancer. It's a virus that causes my liver disease.

MELAS: "Love Can Build a Bridge" released December 1990 was the duo's final single according to the Web site. In 2016, Naomi Judd opened up about mental illness during an appearance on "Good Morning America," saying that she had been diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety. The singer said at that time that she would, quote, "not leave the house for three weeks and knock it out of my pajamas and not practice normal hygiene." The same year, she wrote a book titled "River of Time: My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged with Hope," explaining her struggles.

N. JUDD: I have certain things that I did every single day to help me get out of the depression. So the stigma is horrible and that's why I'm trying to shout it from the rooftops and tell everybody, hey, if it happened to me, it can happen to you. The good news, the spoiler alert, is that I'm recovering. I'm healing.

MELAS: The Judds completed what was billed as a farewell tour in 2011.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The iconic duo, the Judds.

MELAS: But they announced earlier this year, a 10-date final tour that was scheduled to begin in September.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The final tour.

MELAS: They performed together publicly for the first time in years in April at the CMT Music Awards. The Country Music Hall of Fame described their music as characterized by distinctive harmonies with powerful lead vocals and acoustic accompaniments with elements of traditional folk, blues, and family harmony.

N. JUDD: I get out there on life's highways and I'm just a student of human behavior. Life is absolutely fascinating. Life is so unpredictable. And we don't know. Someone said it's not how many breaths you take, it's how many moments take your breath away.

MELAS: The duo was earlier scheduled to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame tonight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: That was Chloe Melas reporting. Naomi Judd was 76 years old.

The woman considered the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees has a new project. We're going to explain why Jane Goodall is planting trees with Rebel Wilson. Up next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANE GOODALL, PRIMATOLOGIST AND ANTHROPOLOGIST: My main job, actually, for a good many years has been giving people the hope that will lead them to take action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:47:51]

BROWN: There is new evidence of the terrible toll climate change is already taking on our planet. Scientists say intense hurricanes and typhoons could more than double by 2050 in nearly all regions of the world because of climate change. A study published in "Nature" says climate change could drive thousands of viruses to jump from one species to another. It increased the risk that one could jump to humans and cause a new pandemic.

Another new study predicts roughly one third of all marine animals could vanish within the next 300 years if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase. And Global Forest Watch reports the number of trees destroyed in northern regions last year was up 30 percent from the year before. In southern regions, some climate researchers fear that the Brazilian rainforest may be approaching a tipping point when it emits more carbon than it stores.

Which leads me to our next guest. If you thought Jane Goodall only care about chimps, let us expand your thinking. At the age of 88, she is taking part in a global effort called the Trillion Tree Challenge. Getting a trillion trees planted by 2030. Well, you may have seen her and Rebel Wilson talking about the benefits of forest bathing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REBEL WILSON, ACTRESS: You and I are taking a bath together in the forest today. I'm so pumped about it. I've got my shower cap. I've got some loofa first.

GOODALL: That's not like that, you know. It's actually just being in the forest, really appreciating the beauty of the trees and the peace of the trees.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Jane and Rebel along with HP and the Arbor Day Foundation are pushing to get a million trees planted by the end of June.

CNN's Chloe Melas spoke with Goodall about this project. And Chloe, what an inspiring person she is. Tell us more about your conversation with her.

MELAS: Pamela, I had the chance, yes, to speak to Jane Goodall and she talked to me about this initiative for Arbor Day and teaming up with actress Rebel Wilson and a fun story about what happened when she actually met Rebel for the very first time.

[18:50:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOODALL: Yes, so I didn't -- I knew nothing about Rebel Wilson. Nothing until because I don't have time to watch television like that. So we met in her airconditioned trailer. And we walked up into a forested area in one of the parks in Los Angeles. Very beautiful area. Only unfortunately the view was a little curtailed by an extremely large camera crew and recording crew and I think two different ones. Anyway, she came in a bathrobe with a loofah and a bright pink bath cap.

And, you know, I explained to her, you know, forest bathing is actually prescribed in Japan and Canada because it's found that spending time with trees is actually beneficiary to your health and your wellbeing. Rebel said she'd never planted a tree. I don't know if that was true so I showed how to plant a tree.

MELAS: What is it that has driven you for all of these decades to not stop, to continue to find the energy?

GOODALL: Because there's so much to do. Because I care passionately about the environment, about animals and about children. And you know, we're actually not doing very well at the moment. We're living in very dark times so my main job actually for a good many years has been giving people the hope that we'll lead them to take action.

And although it may seem that as an individual you can't do much, if millions of individuals make ethical choices in what they buy, how they interact with the environment, then that's going to accumulatively make a big difference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MELAS: I have followed Jane Goodall's career throughout my entire life, and all of her incredible conservation efforts and so I asked her, you know, how often do you think about those early days in your 20s in Africa. And of course I had to also ask about David Graybeard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOODALL: So they were without any question the happiest days of my life. I mean, they were just -- makes me nostalgic to think of them. And I knew those chimpanzees as well as my family. The professors told me I was doing everything wrong. I shouldn't have given the chimpanzees names. They should have had numbers. That was scientific. I couldn't talk about their personality, their mind or their emotions because those were unique to us.

In fact, I was told that the difference between us and all other animals was one of kind. It was a sharp line. We were separate, aloof from all the others in spite of Darwin's theories, but I knew that that was wrong.

MELAS: How often do you think about David Graybeard?

GOODALL: Well, I think about him quite often. And there he is behind me back there. I think about them all. Old Flo and Fifi and all of them but of course those characters are gone now.

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MELAS: Believe it or not, I actually had to take a moment to introduce her to my animals in my home. I introduced her to my cat and my dog, and she actually spoke to them, and I think at one point my cat was actually like looking at her and I felt like they had some sort of a connection. I wouldn't doubt it. But, you know, look, she is still to this day on a quest for her conservation efforts and bringing awareness to how we can affect our environment and the climate, and she's just an incredibly passionate human being. BROWN: She really is. Such a great interview. Chloe Melas, thanks so

much.

And you're in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Sunday. When we come back, civilians trapped in a bombed-out steel plant rescued at last. Details on how they made it out when we come back.

[18:55:00]

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BROWN: I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. The top stories tonight. Civilian evacuations underway from the rubble of Mariupol as a shaky cease-fire holds. More than 100 people have already gotten out with more expected.

Plus the new struggle for COVID long haulers.