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CNN This Morning
22 Killed, Dozens Injured By Tornadoes And Storms Across U.S.; Trump Lawyers Question If He Can Get Fair Trial In New York; Pope Thanks Well-Wishers After Illness, Presides Over Mass; Tech Leaders Call For Pause On Out Of Control AI Race; The Dangers Of Covering The War; Emergency Visits For Gunshot Wounds Higher Than The Pre-Pandemic; It's San Diego State Vs UConn In The March Madness Championship. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired April 02, 2023 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[08:00:43]
AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Oh good morning. You should have woken me up like your last hit me.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCOHR: I hope you're awake.
WALKER: It's a reason why you're here to shake me awake.
Good morning, everyone. Welcome to CNN THIS MORNING. It is Sunday, April 2nd. I'm like, why is he looking at me?
I'm Amara Walker.
BLACKWELL: April Fool's Day was yesterday.
I'm Victor Blackwell. Thank you for spending some time with us this morning.
Here's what we're watching.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just surreal. You know, you just everything you've worked. We've lived in this house 44 years and you know everything we worked for, and paid for it. It's gone. It's gone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Communities across the South and Midwest are cleaning up after powerful storms ripped through at least seven states. The damage is catastrophic. Our team is live in Arkansas ahead of FEMA's arrival there.
WALKER: We have new CNN reporting on the mood among former President Trump's advisers ahead of his court appearance Tuesday. The concerns about where a potential trial could be held.
BLACKWELL: Plus, back to work. How Pope Francis is spending this Palm Sunday after being released from the hospital.
WALKER: And pump the brakes. Some leaders in the tech industry are urging a slowdown in what they call an artificial intelligence arms race. Their concerns with the new technology coming up.
At least 22 people are dead this morning after violent and devastating storms leveled entire communities in the South and Midwest. The process of cleaning up is well underway, but with the vast damage it could take a long time. The tornadoes, crushing homes and businesses, ripping off roofs of buildings, splintering trees and power lines from Iowa, all the way to the East Coast.
The latest storm-related death happened in Delaware after a home collapsed Saturday night when a tornado touched down.
BLACKWELL: In Little Rock, Arkansas, storms smashed storefronts and overturned vehicles after a fierce tornado sliced through the state's capital.
Listen to this one man as he recounts the moment he rode out that storm inside his pest control van.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Oh, holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
CODY COOMBES, RODE OUT TWISTER IN VAN: Yeah, 100 percent did think I was going to die. Once I saw the winds pick up the way they did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: And more extreme weather is on the way. Texas is bracing for large hail, strong winds and even tornadoes later this afternoon and early into the week, the central U.S. will be back in the bullseye for nasty storms. More tornadoes. Tornadoes are expected they're starting Tuesday.
So people in Arkansas are in a rush to clean up before more bad weather hits.
Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is getting that first look at the extensive damage in Wynne, Arkansas.
The community is coming together. This is Palm Sunday. Many of them will be at least near the churches, even though they're not standing. Tell us what you're seeing and what's going to happen today.
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, Victor, I'm standing in front of the heavily damaged Wynne First United Methodist Church on this Palm Sunday, a significant day for people of the Christian faith leading up to Easter next Sunday.
I want you to see what this church looked like before the tornado tore through with this path of destruction. And then once you see that beautiful building, now take the mast cam from our satellite truck to get more of an aerial perspective to see the devastation that was left behind by this powerful, powerful twister. This is just a drop in the bucket of the destruction that happened here in Wynne, Arkansas, the town's mayor, describing it best literally splitting the town in half, but it wasn't just here. It was across the entire Midwest. Take a listen.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Over there, that's a tornado.
VAN DAM (voice-over): Catastrophic destruction and rising death toll from the most recent outbreak of tornadoes. More than 50 tornadoes have been reported in the South and Midwest beginning Friday afternoon. This video from Wynne, Arkansas, one of the many devastated communities.
[08:05:05]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
VAN DAM: There are reports of at least a dozen tornadoes touching down in the state. The National Guard is rolling in to help.
Arkansas declared a state of emergency after the deadly outbreak. At least five people died in the state.
MAYOR JENNIFER HOBBS, WYNNE, ARKANSAS: We have a lot of families that are completely devastated, have no home at all to go to, so we will have to have to help these families and we'll need all the help that we can get.
VAN DAM: Mayor Hobbs also said the search and rescue efforts have ended, and the focus now turns to cleaning up and eventually rebuilding.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my god. Guys, they went right over.
VAN DAM: In Little Rock, Arkansas storms caused damage to more than 2,000 buildings, according to the mayor.
MAYOR FRANK SCOTT, JR., LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS: We think right now close to 2600 structures have been impacted. We have about 50 residents that were transported to the hospital. It's probably grace of God, nobody in Little Rock was killed.
VAN DAM: The governor of Arkansas spoke with President Joe Biden and Homeland Security, who, she says offered a tremendous amount of support.
GOV. SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS (R), ARKANSAS: Anything that Arkansas needs. They have assured us that those resources will be here and on the ground.
VAN DAM: In northern Illinois, four people died. One of the store related deaths came during a crowded concert Friday night when the roof of the venue collapsed. Violent storms also tore through Indiana. Three people were killed by a storm Friday night that damaged homes and a volunteer fire department near Sullivan, state, police said.
In Madison County, Alabama, one person died and five were injured overnight, officials said during a news conference Saturday morning. In Pontotoc County, Mississippi, one person died and four others were injured, according to the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
In McNairy County, which is located in southern Tennessee, between Nashville and Memphis, there were seven deaths, according to the director of emergency management. The same storm system left one person dead Saturday evening after a structure collapsed in Delaware, Sussex County, according to the county's emergency operations center.
The storms come a week after severe weather wallop to the southeast and killed at least 26 people. A tornado leveled much of Rolling Fork, Mississippi, were estimated maximum winds of 170 mph were recorded.
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VAN DAM (on camera): According to this church's Facebook page, they are still holding a shortened Palms Sunday service for prayer and recognition of the lives that have been lost with these deadly tornadoes. It's hard to believe, Victor and Amara, that the threat of more tornadoes exist later this week in this very region.
Back to you.
WALKER: Good to hear that they're taking the time to come together for, you know, a service to lift their spirits, hopefully.
Derek Van Dam, thank you very much.
We're joined now by Wynne, Arkansas, Mayor Jessica Hobbs.
Mayor, thank you so much for your time.
Your community has suffered extensive, devastating damage. You've also lost four people. What's the latest in terms of the recovery efforts?
HOBBS (via telephone): It was confirmed with me yesterday afternoon that, we have completed our search and rescue portion, that is of recovery there. So we will start today with trying to clear path and allow homeowners to get back towards their property and see if there's anything that's salvageable, and that will start the long, lengthy process of cleanup.
BLACKWELL: We heard in Derek's story there that you said that your town is going to need all the help you can get. Of course, as we see the yellow jackets field here at the Wynne High School. How much help you'll need? Are you getting it? How much is coming in even in just the first day?
HOBBS: We are. We had just been overwhelmed at the amount of support that we've received from our local Arkansas community, for everything from volunteer firemen to fire department police departments. The National Guard has arrived. State police has been excellent it to be on hand to help us. And I can't even begin to name the number of volunteers that have shown up, wood (ph) and chainsaws and backhoes and just trying to clear a path to these homes in our streets. That when the tornado came through, it did, it went started at the west, city limit and went all the way through and cleared the a city limits and on out into the county.
So we virtually were cut in half. The police department, city halls on the south side of that destruction line. The fire department is on the north side, and there was not a way to get between the two.
[08:05:02]
And so, we've had amazing outpour of people that have come in and clear the streets so that we can make -- make it around to everybody and get to that home to home stage of checking for any, um, loss of life for anyone that was trapped.
WALKER: Oh gosh. These images -- images are just heartbreaking to see. I mean, the damages, right? I mean, we just saw from our Derek Van Dam, churches have been lost. Homes, trees toppled, schools are gone on.
Can you just give us a sense of the extent of what's gone? And you know what happens tomorrow and the day after for the people there? Obviously, their lives are now being put on hold.
HOBBS: Right. It's just been overwhelming. We have so many people that are just at a com -- I mean, I completely lost everything. And we're just trying to restructure and figure out how to get them the help that they need.
We got to clean up first, and that's going to take a massive amount of support and resources that we don't have that alone in our small community. We have just over 8,300 people in our community and it is going to take some resources beyond our means. And we're just going to need all the help that we can to help these families recover.
BLACKWELL: How's your family? How's your home?
HOBBS: My home was on the south end of town. So, we missed any damage. And myself and my family is fine. Thank you for asking.
BLACKWELL: Of course. Mayor Jennifer Hobbs, you've got a herculean effort in front of you and all the people there. As we watch this video. Our thoughts will be with you and we will be checking back.
HOBBS: All right. Thank you so much for calling.
BLACKWELL: Thank you.
We're tracking the threat of more severe storms today in the central U.S.
Meteorologist Britley Ritz joins us now with details. Britley, who's next? I mean, what it seems like we're doing this day after day with these tornadoes and who's -- who's facing the potential now?
BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right now, we're tracking it across Texas. And thankfully, we've got to break this morning. No severe weather at the moment, but the stall boundary to the south eventually will lift north and bring us that threat late afternoon and into the evening.
Areas highlighted in orange, where we're most vulnerable for that severe weather threat. That includes Dallas. Very large hail, that's our biggest concern. Hail and wind, but isolated tornadoes cannot be ruled out.
Now, hail size, we're talking golf ball size or higher, like two inches in diameter. Right now, pretty quiet like I mentioned, but that warm front begins to lift and we bring in the storm chances ahead of it and alongside the boundary. Anywhere between 7:00 and 8:00 o'clock for initiation, and then it holds through the overnight and pushes back into the southeast. So by the time we get into Monday morning, then we're dealing with the severe weather there.
That's the first system. Now we're rolling into the second system that comes into play early next week by Tuesday. Some of the same areas that dealt with severe weather on Friday, we'll bring in the same threats, including long lived tornadoes.
WALKER: All right. Britney Ritz, thank you for tracking that for us. Thank you.
Let's turn now to the critical week ahead for former President Donald Trump. He is expected to be arraigned Tuesday in a Manhattan courthouse, becoming the first president to face criminal charges.
BLACKWELL: Now, as we wait for those charges against Trump to be unsealed. His legal team has already looking ahead to a potential trial and questioning whether the former president can get a fair hearing.
CNN's Kristen Holmes has more for us from West Palm Beach.
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Victor and Amara.
Well, former President Trump's aides, allies, advisors have all expressed concern that he might not get a fair trial if this actually does go to trial in Manhattan, given the political makeup of that borough. But we have talked to a number of sources who say that Trump's legal team is not considering asking for a change of venue to perhaps a more Republican friendly borough, but they are just waiting to actually see that indictment, which they are expected to do on Tuesday at that arraignment before they make any decisions. But the messaging behind this that this potential trial might not be
fair is really what we have heard from the former president for the last several days. He has painted this as a witch hunt, this indictment, this case. He has said that Alvin Bragg is linked to Democrats, linked to Joe Biden, that this was in some way a favor to Joe Biden.
He's even gone after the judge where he's expected to appear in front of on Tuesday, saying that that judge hates him. And this is something that we haven't just heard from the former president. But also from many Republicans, and a lot of that is due to what we know the president is doing right now behind closed doors, he is making phone calls to allies across the country and on Capitol Hill.
He's shoring up the support that he has ahead of this indictment.
[08:15:01]
And I will tell you that the sources that I am talking to every day, they feel like it is working. They feel like they're having Republicans rally around them.
Now, of course, the question still remains whether or not this will be politically helpful in a primary. Many of these Republicans believe it will be, but also in a general election, and that is just a big unknown right now.
BLACKWELL: Kristen, thank you very much.
Former Manhattan assistant district attorney Jeremy Saland is with us now.
Jeremy, good to have you back.
We invited you here to talk about the logistics of what we're going to see on Tuesday. But why don't start with you with what Kristen was reporting. The concerned by some of Trump's attorneys those around him that he cannot get potentially a fair trial in Manhattan. What's your view on that concern?
JEREMY SALAND, FORMER MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Well, listen, Manhattan certainly is going to be a left leaning jurisdiction and most of the residents where they are likely not politically Trump supporters, but at the same time, that's not a fair statement. The jury and the defense will do a good job getting them, so will the prosecution.
So he can certainly get a fair trial to take that line of thinking. That means any Democrat who is in a conservative location in DeSantis' backyard, for example, couldn't get a fair trial. That's not a reasonable statement.
BLACKWELL: Okay. So, now, let's talk about Tuesday. We've talked about the security elements that that are really intricate to get the president there safely protect the protesters, the people of New York.
Once he's in the building, will this look any different than any other arrangement? Or what should we expect?
SALAND: I would expect her to be heightened security. That's the obvious. I would expect her to be barricades. I would expect the court officers to limit who's going to be on that floor where the courtroom is to make sure that there's no chaos or any risk to the president or the public.
But once he's in that courtroom, albeit a filled in full courtroom, he's going to go before that judges like anyone else. He's going to presumably plead not guilty, just like anyone else. Whether or not he ultimately is able to, you know, say anything on the record, not really much other than his attorneys. I'm certain trying that case in the courtroom but also using this as a first opportunity to start to try that case in the media as well.
BLACKWELL: Yeah, so in the courtroom, though, this will not be as we've seen the former president before, as he was deposed as part of the New York attorney general's case against the Trump Organization. There will be no, you know, 300-word statement that the former president will read. He won't have much to say.
SALAND: No, the court's not going to ask him for that. The court wants to keep the crease moving in the right direction. Keep it clean and clear.
This is not the media. This is not the public. This is a courtroom, and it should be respected as such.
His counsel certainly will start that process and probably not only pleaded not guilty, but sharing some of that defense. Maybe this is not a proper indictment. There are some issues of legal background that he's going to challenge.
But overall, I expected to go for the most part, like any other case, but once you leave the four corners of the courtroom it could be very, very different. BLACKWELL: He will be fingerprinted. There will be a mug shot taken.
In New York, mug shots are not automatically released. But the judge in this case, Judge Merchan, cited the public interest in this historic case, as part of the reason he decided to allow the unsealing of the grand jury indictment on Tuesday.
Do you believe that there is a public interest argument in the release of the mug shot and that that should be public?
SALAND: You know, I don't see it that often that that mug shot happens in terms of being public. These are two vastly different things. The law and the substance of the case is something picture of a former president being fingerprinted and part of me before the camera for his rap sheet.
That's neither here nor there. That doesn't go to the substance. That is not a public interest. That is a vastly different situation.
So I would expect that that would be a no. That that would not be released. BLACKWELL: Jeremy Saland, I appreciate the insight. Thank you.
And be sure to tune in next hour to State of the Union. Dana Bash will be joined live by former President Trump's attorney ahead of his first court appearance Tuesday, nine a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
WALKER: All right. Pope Francis was just released from the hospital yesterday, and he's already back to work. An update on his health and how he is marking this Palm Sunday.
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[08:23:36]
WALKER: Pope Francis thanked those who prayed for him during his illness, after presiding over Palm Sunday mass in the Vatican, just a day after leaving the hospital following about of bronchitis.
BLACKWELL: The 86-year-old pontiff sat for most of the ceremony, but he delivered the angelus prayer asking -- or rather thanking people for their good wishes as he was sick. Of course, this kicks off the week's events leading to Easter.
CNN's Delia Gallagher is in Rome this morning.
Good spirits from the pope when he left the hospital. How does he look? How does he sound today?
DELIA GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look, I would say, Victor and Amara, that was good spirits again today. In fact, with the crowd, we tend to see Francis even more kind of in his element. Certainly, a bit of tiredness voice a bit less strong than usual, but I think that's to be expected. And frankly, I think the news is that he's there at all. If you consider on Wednesday, we didn't know what was going to happen when he checked into the hospital, and they had told us that he had trouble breathing.
He went in his pope mobile around after mass saying hi to the people waving giving them a thumbs-up. About 60,000 people were in the crowd, the Vatican tells us for this Palm Sunday which, as you mentioned kicks off a very busy week at the Vatican and the pope on Thursday will be going to a juvenile jail where he does the traditional washing of the feet of jail here in Rome on Friday.
[08:25:03]
He's expected to be outside in the evening in front of Rome's coliseum for the way of the cross ceremony on Saturday, he does an Easter vigil here at the Vatican, and, of course on Sunday, Easter mass outside in St. Peter's Square.
So, it is really the timing of his bronchitis is a bit unfortunate because this is the busiest week of the year for Pope Francis. Now he's not saying the masses as you mentioned, he's sitting down. There is another cardinal who says the mass, but he's giving the homily. He's giving long talks during the mass. So it's certainly a challenge right now for Pope Francis, who will be
watching him to see how he does. He's said that he's going to go to Hungary, a trip he had scheduled at the end of the month. So it looks like he is not letting the bronchitis slow him down -- Victor, Amara.
WALKER: That is so impressive. I mean, I have to say I'm getting over bronchitis. And I mean, I barely got out of bed in the morning and I'm not 86. He's got a really busy schedule.
Delia Gallagher, appreciate that update. Thank you so much.
BLACKWELL: Thanks.
WALKER: Coming up, some of the biggest names in tech are calling for artificial intelligence labs to stop training the most powerful AI systems. Why? We'll discuss.
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[08:30:07]
WALKER: Elon Musk and dozens of other tech industry leaders have signed an open letter warning of the dangers of artificial intelligence. And there are many.
They are calling for a pause on developing the most powerful systems for at least six months due to quote profound risks to society and humanity. The letter comes after the firm Open AI announced an even more powerful version of ethe technology behind the viral AI chatbot tool Chat GPT.
Here with me now is one of the signees of that open letter, Vincent Conitzer. He is a professor of computer science and director of the foundations of Cooperative AI lab at Carnegie Mellon University.
Vincent, really appreciate your time. You and your colleagues are asking for this pause, too. Take time to take stock of the risks of artificial intelligence. We'll go into those risks soon because it kind of creeps me out. But why six months and what happens after that?
VINCENT CONITZER, DIRECTOR, FOUNDATION OF COOPERATIVE AI LAB: That's a great question, and many people have complained that maybe six months isn't enough or this is not what we should be focusing on.
I think mostly this is about exactly what you said that the technology is rushing ahead so quickly. We haven't had time to take stock figure out how to think about these models. How to analyze them. How to know that we're designing them in safe and ethical ways. And we just need to catch up. Also, regulation needs to catch up.
WALKER: Right, right. I mean, yes. So let's slow it down. Just for a little bit. There was a part of -- I was reading this open letter and where my jaw kind of dropped open was this part.
"Contemporary ai systems are now becoming human competitive at general tasks and we must ask ourselves should we let machines flatter information channels, propaganda and untruth. Should we automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling ones? Should we develop nonhuman minds that might eventually outnumber out smart, obsolete and replace us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilization?
So AI I has the potential to wipe life off the face of the planet, sir. How so?
CONITZER: Well maybe at some point, it will, and that's something to take seriously. I think that paragraph also indicates that there are just so many different concerns with these types of technologies in the short term.
Even right now, we're worried about the systems such as ChatGPT giving false, misleading, biased answers. Students cheating on their essay assignments, intellectual property concerns.
In a little bit near future. Maybe we're worried about large scale misinformation resulting from these kinds of systems. And then maybe a little bit further out. As you said, uh, everybody losing their job or at least everybody's job changing dramatically and then all the way up to these existential concerns that maybe at some point somehow, one of these systems gets into a position of power where it could wipe out all life on the planet.
And really, the issue is that we don't really know very well how to think about these issues.
WALKER: So in relation to the risks that we've just talked about it the potential of AI and the harm that it can do. Where are we technologically, how far has artificial intelligence developed? Give me some examples.
CONITZER: Good. And so what we see is that with these techniques that scale ever larger models, they somehow almost magically attained new abilities over time. That said there are still many things that they cannot do at this point. If you play enough with ChatGPT, you'll find it at some point giving very strange answers. Sometimes one answer that seemed very sensible. If you ask another question it reveals that it really doesn't understand what it just talked about.
And in many ways, it's very strange to us. It doesn't reason like a human being, and yet it seems to be getting very powerful. And some of these techniques are also being used now to make scientific breakthroughs, like protein folding and there was a big scientific breakthrough based on very similar AI techniques.
So in some ways, the systems really are more powerful than us. Some things we as human beings don't have very good intuitions about and these systems can learn about them.
WALKER: Have you had any response to this open letter, and if a pause is not put in place soon, the letter calls on governments to step in and create a moratorium. What role do you see governments playing and reining in this technology from bad acts.
CONITZER: Good. I don't honestly think that's all the labs will now suddenly shut down their activity. Governments, I think are very interested in AI and they're thinking about how to regulate it. How to think about it but it's slow. [08:2:59]
CONITZER: And there are many different initiatives and in the EU, there's the EU AI act. The Biden administration has the blueprint for thinking about AI so I think there is progress there.
Again, it's just the issue of catching up with the technology that just seems to be racing ahead so fast. Whereas something like government regulation happens much more slowly.
WALKER: Yes let's try to understand it before it develops out of control. That sounds like a safe bet.
Professor Vincent Conitzer, appreciate your time. Thank you.
BLACKWELL: CNN has been in Ukraine since before Russia's war began and coming up, we're going to speak to our very own Fred Pleitgen about the dangers and what that experience has been like. That's next.
[08:35:40]
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WALKER: The death toll is rising following a massive Russian strike in eastern Ukraine. Six people are dead, at least eight others are wounded. And that is, according to local officials in the Donetsk region. They say 16 apartment buildings, eight homes and a kindergarten were damaged.
And as you'd imagine, some of our CNN correspondents risk their lives covering wars like this one. I want to show you a clip from Frederik Pleitgen recently when he was in Kramatorsk, Ukraine.
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FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There were just two massive missile strikes right in our vicinity. You can see it's just a couple of yards away from where we are.
We're not exactly sure what kind of missiles it was. But this is a residential area. We're right in the middle of town.
We're going to get out of here as fast as possible. Just in case there's more missile strikes coming, but it certainly seems to us as though the Russians are making Kramatorsk a front line in this war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: All right. Frederik Pleitgen is joining us now. Fred, thank you so much for doing this and you know, giving our viewers a glimpse behind the scenes and what you know you kind of deal with when you're out in war zones like this.
I mean, this was a terrifying scene I'd imagine for you and your crew. Walk us through what happened.
PLEITGEN: Well thank you for having me, Amara. And yes it certainly was a scene that was very difficult to deal with for us at that time.
And just to set the scene for our viewers a little bit. When we got there to that town of Kramatorsk, we were going there because the town had been hit right in the center with a giant Russian missile the night before.
It was called an Iskander missile, which is a medium range missile that can actually carry nuclear warheads. If the Russians chose to do so. Obviously, in this case, it carried a conventional warhead, but it did level a residential building in that town.
So when we got there in the center of town, there was a search and rescue operations still ongoing and we parked our vehicles. We went there to the scene where building got hit when all of a sudden as we were walking to the scene, I and the rest of us felt and heard a massive explosion right behind us.
And I turned around and I saw a bunch of aluminum parts basically raining down from the sky, which I think were parts of the missile that had just impacted and so we could see a big plume of smoke. I would say about 50 to 60 yards away from where we were.
And at that point in time, you know we do deal a lot, with getting shot at, with getting shelled also, but this was obviously something that was on a different scale.
And so we all decided to go towards some sort of cellar or basement because that's the best protection that you have. And as we were doing that a second missile came in and hit there as well.
So certainly was pretty brutal scene that we witnessed there again. Right in the center of that town, Amara.
WALKER: You've been through some scary moments. Just what was going through your mind at that time? I mean, did you think truly that you could lose your life this time around?
PLEITGEN: Well yes, I mean, certainly that is certainly something that you that you do think about. But in that moment when that happened, you basically just function. You try to get to safety. You obviously also try to keep doing your work because you know this is something where the people in that town they live there. They witnessed stuff like that quite frequently.
And so you also have to see how they feel about it and speak to them as well. So we did continue our work. We obviously stayed safe as we did that. But yes, of course it is something. Where afterwards. You do think about the fact that yes, it was a pretty close call today. And one of the things that you know, I want to say about the war in Ukraine, and I've been to Iraq to Libya to Syria and a lot of other war zones as well, Ukraine certainly is a lot more dangerous and the chance of getting hurt there is a lot higher than it is in a lot of other places because of indiscriminate fire like we saw there. WALKER: Yes, exactly and look you've spent about four months in Ukraine. And as you know very well, Vladimir Putin facing international war crime charges for the way he's been waging this very unconventional war.
You reported on the brutal tactics employed by Russia that has flouted the rules of war, even targeting children. We just heard that you know, a school was hit.
What has shocked you the most about Russia's conduct on the battlefield.
PLEITGEN: Well I think there were several things. I mean one of the things that I said. I was one of the first reporters that also went into Bucha after the Russians left that area. And I saw some of the aftermath there the big mass grave there as well.
So certainly a lot of the carnage that we saw in the wake of when the Russian forces left that area.
But I think there's several things. If you look at this war in general, it is one where certainly it seems that lives are not -- are not valued very high by some of those who are conducting the war.
You have some of those prisoners that are being used by the Russians to charge at Ukrainian positions, for instance, and the Russians still not making very much gains.
Similar things happening on other areas in the battlefield as well where the Russians are just sending their tanks into minefields. And a lot of Russian soldiers getting blown up.
[08:44:57]
PLEITGEN: So certainly the value of life of the soldiers, of civilians and how cheap it is for those who are waging the war is just it's certainly something that sticks out.
WALKER: Wow. Incredible, very just fascinating perspective there.
Frederick Pleitgen appreciate you joining us for this. Thank you so much.
And we'll be right.
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WALKER: The number of people showing up in emergency rooms with gunshot injuries dropped in 2022, but they were still higher than before the pandemic.
BLACKWELL: And most of these cases are not the results of mass shootings, we should be aware.
CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has details for us.
[08:49:47]
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Victor, Amara -- a new CDC study looks at what happened with firearm injuries during the pandemic. Let's take a look at the numbers.
If you look at visits to U.S. emergency rooms for firearm injuries from 2019 to 2022, they went up 20 percent. Now it wasn't a complete climb. There were some ups and downs, but over those three years they went up by 20 percent. And the visits to emergency rooms. The numbers were highest for people ages 15 to 24.
And when you look at weekly visits, they were more than five times higher for males than females.
Other CDC research shows that while mass shootings might get the most amount of attention. Actually there are more deaths, not in mass shootings, there are more deaths actually on the smaller scale shootings that we don't even hear about all the time, Victor, Amara.
BLACKWELL: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.
There's more ahead on CNN this morning. But first make sure to join Eva Longoria tonight in an all new episode of "SEARCHING FOR MEXICO". Here's a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EVA LONGORIA, ACTRESS: Were you born in Yucatan?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I was born and raised in Medial (ph). Mother came to live here when she was from the U.S when she was 18 years old. She was born in Pennsylvania.
LONGORIA: She's American.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. We're both Mexican American.
LONGORIA: Do you ever find it difficult to navigate that identity or you -- you love it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Growing up in Medea for me. I used to be very shy about it.
LONGORIA: I was a fish out of water. You know, people always say like, oh, you're half Mexican, half American. I'm like, no, I'm 100 percent Mexican and 100 percent American at the same time all the time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's what I tried to do my cooking just to be unapologetic and just like the confidence that you give out to the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALKER: "SEARCHING FOR MEXICO" airs tonight at 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.
[08:51:37]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACKWELL: From 64 teams or 68, depending on how you count. I just got an education during the break.
WALKER: You were doing the math.
BLACKWELL: Yes. all the way down to two. That's what counts. UConn versus San Diego State. The play for the title of March Madness champion.
WALKER: There to see it all of course, is our Coy Wire joining us live from Houston this morning. Hi Coy. Let's hope we get a repeat of the early game yesterday because it was an all timer.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Top of the morning to you.
Yes absolutely classic. It was. Good morning to you.
Listen to this San Diego State's head coach Brian Dutcher. He used to walk around campus and hand out free tickets to games. Now he's taking his Aztecs to their first ever national championship game and watch this.
What a way to get there.
Florida Atlantic was actually leading by one with nine seconds to go going for the dagger, but missed the shot. And instead of calling time out, Coach Dutcher let his players play. And it pays off.
Lamont Butler legendary stuff. Let's go of the ball just before the buzzer 72 to 71 pure elation for the Aztecs. They're rushing the floor.
Some students told me that they drove 1500 miles 20 hours just to be here in Houston for this moment at the same time, of course, it's hearts and dreams shattered for FAU. Take a listen to how this incredible moment sounded around the country from southern California. It's a buck Boca Raton.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rebound (INAUDIBLE) six seconds to go, 5 seconds. Butler, to the right wing , Butler inside out, dribble. Down to the light baseline with two with one Butler jumper for the win. And he made it. Lamont Butler pulled out dump shots on the court.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: Back in San Diego fans at the Padres game erupting in cheers when they found out Tony Gwynn Jr. a proud Aztec alum wearing his dad's old San Diego State hoops jersey, the baseball hall of famers actually the basketball team's all time assist leader did you know?
And how about our hall of famer legend from the NBA, Charles Barkley and crew going wild. Here is the hero Lamont Butler after the game.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAMONT BUTLER, SAN DIEGO STATE PLAYER: The plan was just to get downhill coming off a little bit. I looked up. It was two seconds left, so I got to a shot that I'm comfortable with, and I hit it.
I'm happy too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Most guys dream of making one of those plays. And he's made a couple already this year and on his biggest stages, the (INAUDIBLE) and the national semi-finals, to make that shot was incredible.
So I'm going to I can't wait to go back and see it on tape.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: San Diego State will face the UConn Huskies for the chance that one shining moment you can't continue its run of domination against Miami last night, winning 72-59 advancing to the championship game for the first time since 2014.
Star center Adam Las Raenogo (ph). He had a game high 21 points. 10 rebounds. He grew up in Mali, five older sisters, one younger brother. Speaks four different languages.
And now they are just one win away from a fifth national title or the Huskies. Incredible stuff they're perfect for and oh, Victor and Amara when playing for the national title safe to say, March Madness spilling over into April, giving us the most unlikely championship game of all time.
WALKER: That was tunning. I'm writing Lamont Butler's name down because that's the name that we're going to probably continue to see after all this madness is over.
BLACKWELL: It really is like a moment from a movie that it comes down to the last shot the last second --
WALKER: And no time out.
[08:59:55]
BLACKWELL: And, yes, he gets to a space he's comfortable with. And hits it. It's fantastic, fantastic.
Alright Coy. Enjoy the game -- what is it -- tomorrow night Monday night. Thanks so much.
And thank you for spending your morning with us. We will see you back here next weekend.
WALKER: Don't go anywhere. "STATE OF THE UNION" starts right now.
