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Mosque Explosion In Pakistan Kills At Least 61; Arctic Blast Threatens Millions With Ice, Dangerous Cold; Students Return To Elementary Where 6-Year-Old Shot Teacher; Study: Children Lost About 35 Percent Of A Normal School Year's Worth Of Learning During Pandemic; Survey: Mental Health Concerns Top List Of Parental Worries; Surgeon General: 13 Is Too Early To Join Social Media; Eagles, Chiefs For Super Bowl 57; Brothers Will Be On Opposing Super Bowl Teams For First Time. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired January 30, 2023 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

SOPHIA SAIFI, CNN PRODUCER: It took place during afternoon prayers, quite a few hours ago, more than 10 hours ago from now here local time. And we do know that when the blast took place, the entire ceiling of the mosque fell in and a lot of people are still stuck in the rubble off that blast off that explosion that took place.

So rescue efforts are still underway in the northwestern city of the Peshawar. Now the Pakistani Taliban have increased their attacks in the north of this country across Pakistan really, ever since a ceasefire between that militant group and the Pakistani state and the military fell apart in November of last year. There was an attempted attack at state of buildings, the government buildings in the capital of Islam.

But towards the end of December, the country has been on high alert. So all of the major cities of Pakistan have seen army check posts, have seen paramilitary troops kind of, you know, patrolling the streets of the cities. There is a heightened sense of security, and a lot of families are burying their dead tonight.

Peshawar is no stranger to these kinds of attacks. There was a similar one in March last year. So less than a year ago, at a Shia Mosque in the city of Peshawar, where there was a similar death toll of more than 60 people who died. So there is this fear that militancy is back and rearing its ugly head back here in Pakistan that'd been a few years of stability, but that has changed ever since the fall of Kabul in the summer of 2021.

Pakistani authorities accused the Afghan Taliban of harboring the Pakistani Taliban, and we're still waiting to see how this investigation will unfold. And whether this vicious cycle will continue here in Pakistan. Kasie?

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Sophia Saifi, thank you very much for that report. Meanwhile, officials in Australia are conducting a massive search for a very dangerous and very tiny radioactive capsule that they believe fell off of a truck. Here it is. Take a look. It is a small cylinder used in gauges for mining operations. It is smaller than a penny. Yes, that's really -- it's kind of hard to wrap your head around, but it contains a dangerous radioactive substance that can cause a lot of health issues.

They include cancer, radiation sickness or burns, immune system problems and potentially even death. Officials say the package was damaged during transit and the capsule likely fell off a truck. So now they're searching a desert highway about the length of the California coast to try to find it.

If you're in Australia and you do happen to come across it, official say do not touch it. Keep your distance and call for help. OK.

Meanwhile, more arctic air is blasting across this country, at least 40 million people, from Texas to West Virginia are under winter weather alerts. Freezing rain and bitter cold are part of this package. Forecasters say at least 15 states could see significant amounts of ice. And the northern plains and upper Midwest, they could experience wind chills as low as 45 degrees below zero.

Meteorologist Derek Van Dam joins us now. Derek, this is chilly. How long is this going to go on?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Kasie, you know, this arctic air is really laying the groundwork for this ice storm that's going to unfold across Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, even western sections of Tennessee. But let me just show you how cold it is right now.

Denver, you're only going to top 5 degrees. Your normal high temperature is 44. Very similar results across Minneapolis into Chicago as well. So the cold air is there. It's setting the stage. This is what it feels like on your exposed skin as you step outside overnight. National Weather Service picking up on that. They've issued windchill alerts in advance of this.

But what's important here is where the cold air is headed. It continues to traverse southward. So we've got this classic setup, right? So at the moment, we've got warm, very moisture laden air from the Gulf of Mexico, that's streaming in from this region. But it's been overlaid by very cold air that I showed you just a few moments ago.

What happens there? Cold air is very dense, it sinks to the surface of the air, so the surface of the ground. So basically, it settles into that area. The warm moisture starts to override it. And we get that freezing rain at the surface where the cold air has sunk into. In fact, you can see that on the radar and some of our latest computer models for Dallas to Little Rock all the way to Austin show upwards of half an inch of rain of this long duration ice storm event. Kasie?

HUNT: Got to be careful out there. All right, Derek Van Dam, thanks very much. I'm sure we'll talk to you a lot about this in the coming days.

VAN DAM: Absolutely.

HUNT: So we knew it was bad, now we know just how bad. A new study reveals the toll that the pandemic took on our kids. What parents can do about it, coming up next.

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[13:39:28]

HUNT: For the first time in nearly a month, students and teachers are back inside the elementary school where a first grader shot his teacher. Security guards and metal detectors also present at the school.

CNN's Brian Todd is outside the school for us. And Brian, you were there as parents dropped off their five, six and seven year olds who had to go through these metal detectors and into this new reality. I mean, how are parents responding to all of this?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kasie, there's a lot of anxiety on the part of parents, other relatives as they brought their children back to the school, as you mentioned for the first time, in nearly a month since the shooting of that teacher.

[13:40:04]

We caught up with one woman, DeDe Williams, as she was bringing her third-grade grandson to school and she talked about some of those anxieties. Here's what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEDE WILLIAMS, GRANDPARENT OF THIRD GRADER: It's sad that we have to go in and see all the officers there at that elementary school with these babies, but it made my heart feel better that they were taking it serious. This is the world we live in, unfortunately. We have to teach our children. It starts from home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: And what she's talking about are some really enhanced security protocols at the school right now. I'll go through a few of them for you. As of now, police were on campus to assist in with the transition. We saw several officers, including the Newport News police chief here earlier to welcome the students back to class.

Students are also now provided with clear backpacks to carry around. They cannot bring in their old backpacks to school to fool, excuse me, to state-of-the-art metal detectors have been installed on campus. Also, visitors are limited here during the first week of instruction.

In addition, we were told that any parent who wants to escort their child directly to class could be subject to being searched. So Kasie, that's just a look at some of the enhanced security protocols here. When you go through some of these measures. It's still stark to realize that this is an elementary school, and how little these kids are who have to look at all these security measures and experience this as they go back to class.

HUNT: Really, really, really difficult reality for kids that young. So this incident, of course, led to the ousting of several school officials, and there's a lawsuit. What is the latest there?

TODD: I did speak to someone from the law firm representing Abby Zwerner, the teacher who was shot. The lawsuit has not formally been filed yet. They have filed a notice of the intent to file a lawsuit. This lawsuit will be filed, they say, but it has not formally been filed yet. They're going to give the district some time to respond to that notice, but it's coming.

And it may not be in the next few days. But that lawsuit is coming. And we'll get more detail probably on what they're asking for, and probably some more detail on some of these allegations.

HUNT: All right, Brian Todd, thanks very much for your reporting, sir. We really appreciate it.

And a new study out today shows just how big of an impact the pandemic has had on our kids' education. This study looked at 42 countries and found that students across the board lost out on about 35 percent of normal year's worth of learning. And in the U.S., higher poverty students suffered even more during remote school.

Here to talk about this and more is Dr. Victoria Douglas, she is a child psychiatrist and the author of, "Reset Your Child's Brain." So Victoria, thanks very much for being here. This is, obviously, something that parents know instinctively about what has happened to their kids. But now we have some numbers to go with it. How do parents and schools best help kids get this time back?

DR. VICTORIA DUNCKLEY, CHILD PSYCHIATRIST: Well, I think there's a lot of pressure to kind of catch kids up, and I don't think that's necessarily the best approach. I think there's still a lot of anxiety and depression and kids who are cooped up for a long time. So some of those physical and mental health needs need to be addressed first..

And there's no evidence that we should try to rush things. We should just, you know, meet them where they're at and then they just need to start learning. If they've lost a year, they've lost a year. We can't -- there's really no justification in trying to catch them up if they're not, in that kind of a space to absorb the material.

HUNT: Yes, no, that makes a lot of sense. And, I mean, this mental health crisis, you mentioned it among teens. Let's put some numbers there. Because right now, according to the CDC, suicide is the second leading cause of death of children ages 10 to 14. We also know that mental health related pediatric ER visits are spiking.

There's a new Pew survey that finds mental health is at the top of the list of concerns the parents had with 40 percent of parents saying that they're extremely or very worried that their children will struggle with anxiety or depression. I mean, what should parents be doing to support their kids? I mean, you mentioned giving them a break at school, what else is there that they can do?

DUNCKLEY: Great question. This whole mental health crisis was actually started before the pandemic. We were seeing, especially with the middle schoolers, we were seeing increases in depression and anxiety, increases in the suicide rate. And all of it -- a lot of it is related to screen time, all kinds of screen time, increased hyper arousal, they affect brain chemistry, affects sleep and all of these things in turn affect mental wellbeing.

So, the pandemic really just kind of up made that whole situation and kind of explode. And the kind of the silver lining is that it underscored the need or the idea that really screentime versus pretty much any mental health diagnosis and it can actually create a diagnosis or it can exacerbate one that's already there, and that includes ed tech.

[13:45:12]

So that includes screens in the classroom, and it includes remote learning. So I think -- and, you know, I think ed tech kind of gets a hall pass, if it's something to do that's educational, or that has to do with school, we don't think of it as having physiological effects, but it actually does.

So I think it starts at home, of course, but also it needs to start in the classroom. We need to get all of those screens out of the classroom. We know that late at night, in particular from devices, is linked to depression and suicide, not just attempt, but completion. And we know, you know, kids having their phones under their pillow is, you know, that whole thing is -- it's extremely common situation, but they're also being forced to have computer exposure at night for homework.

So all of those, it's impossible to address the mental health issues if we have all those screens still in there. I think we keep trying to work around it, and it's just not working.

HUNT: Yes, no, it's a really, really interesting point, especially to underscore, you know, the fact that many of these systems that our kids rely on to get educated also rely on these screens. But then there's, of course, the situations where, you know, teens want to be on their phones, social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter, you can join as long as you're 13 years old, these platforms, and the U.S. Surgeon General had this warning on CNN over the weekend. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. VIVEK MURTHY, SURGEON GENERAL: I, personally, based on the data I've seen believe that 13 is too early. And I think that it's a time, you know, early adolescence where kids are developing their identity, their sense of self, it's a time where it's really important for us to be thoughtful about what's going into how they think about their own self-worth and their relationships. And this skewed and often distorted environment of social media often does a disservice to many of those children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So it's such an interesting point, Doctor. I have to say, I've got a very young child at home, so I'm not there yet. But I also, at some -- as a former teenage girl who went to middle and high school, I can't imagine having to deal with these platforms in that kind of a context. But, obviously, all the kids are doing it. Parents have to fight with them to keep them off. I mean, how do they best find success? And if 13 isn't the right age, what is?

DUNCKLEY: Yes, I think, if you haven't started yet, do not start. I'm seeing now, like factions of parents who kind of stick together and say, hey, we're just not going to do social media. And then I've seen these kids, you know, follow these kids up until they're going to college, and they're in much better shape, they have higher self- esteem, they have a better sense of themselves, they're not looking for that external validation all the time.

So if you haven't started, don't start. If you have started, you can still pull back. I just think, you know, try to do it with another family to get rid -- you know, to eliminate social media. I always say do a four-week screen fast, no smartphones, no nothing, that will kind of reset the nervous system. And it also resets people's habits and what they're used to doing.

And I can tell you, I do this with teenage girls all the time. And almost all of them say they feel relieved, because there's so much pressure and it's so time consuming. So I think a lot of times, we're so afraid that we're going to cut them off. But, you know, aside from the very beginning when they might have some anxiety about it, if you spend time with the teen, especially during these first few days, that first week, you're replacing those source -- the attachment pathways.

HUNT: So important. All right, Dr. Victoria Dunckley, thanks very much for your insights today. We really appreciate it.

DUNCKLEY: Thank you, Kasie.

HUNT: And we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:53:28]

HUNT: The game hasn't even been played but Super Bowl 57 already set to score in the history books when the Kansas City Chiefs and my Philadelphia Eagles meet up in Arizona. CNN Senior Data Reporter Harry Enten is here to add up some of the numbers for us. Harry, what's going on?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: You know, this game, I am so excited for and then number two, is going to be so important going forward. Why --

HUNT: It's going to be the second Eagles victory in my lifetime, OK? Second Eagles Super Bowl, but I'm sorry, I cut you off. Go ahead.

ENTEN: No, no, you wish, you wish. Look, the Eagles at this point are favored by two points over the Kansas City Chiefs. So, you know, this is going to be a very tight Super Bowl, very interesting. So that's the first one where we look at number two being important.

HUNT: So what is the -- what are the reasons? I know you've got a couple more, the quarterbacks, for example. There's something else going on.

ENTEN: Yes, it's the first Super Bowl in which there'll be two black starting quarterbacks, Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes. And, you know, we've had been having Super Bowls since the late 1960s. So the fact that it took this long, it is amazing, although not surprising if you know the history of the NFL and all I can say I said in the morning, it's about darn time, Kasie.

HUNT: Yes, no, it really is. It's a really good point. There's also some brotherly love, and I'm not just making a pun about my beloved Philadelphia. What's going on with this?

ENTEN: Yes, it's the first time that two brothers are facing off against each other in the Superbowl. So, obviously, we have Travis Kelce, the great tight end with the Kansas City Chiefs. We also have Jason Kelce who's an All-Pro center with the Philadelphia Eagles.

[13:55:08]

So, you know, as I said, the number two really big, a brotherly love. I just wish I -- I wish that mother good luck when she's trying to figure out who to root for in this game.

HUNT: I know. I mean, as a mom myself, I actually can't imagine being in this position and basically torn in two. So this last piece that you pointed out, this isn't -- it's actually not to do with the number two. But we've got another first going on with Patrick Mahomes. What's up with that?

ENTEN: Yes, Patrick Mahomes is going to be the youngest quarterback ever to start three Super Bowls. He just beats out Brady by 40 days. And then the other just quick thing I'll note is if you're looking as a Philadelphia Eagles fan, they have been running up the score so far in these playoffs. They've won by an average of 27.5 points. That's the third highest ever. So Eagles fans, hey, maybe this will be your year yet again.

HUNT: You love to see it both the fact that a Brady record got beat and also that the Eagles are in good position. Harry Enten, thank you very much for being here with us.

ENTEN: Thank you.

HUNT: And that's going to do it for me today. The news continues after this quick break.

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