--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Friday, August 25th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Shamita Basu: On today's show, Donald Trump surrenders to authorities in Georgia. A big weekend in sports, from soccer to Simone Biles to the Little League World Series. And lessons on grief from Anderson Cooper. But first, new data shows that the number one cause of death for children in the United States is not car accidents, drug overdoses, or cancer. It's guns.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Deaths of children hit a record high in 2021. More than 4,700 kids were killed by firearms in the U.S. The Washington Post has an overview of the study.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Nearly two-thirds of the children killed by guns died in homicides. Almost 30% died by suicide. The death rate for Black children increased the most. Researchers noted the connection to growing racial and socioeconomic disparities. Higher poverty levels are correlated with higher gun death rates.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The report confirms that 2021 was the second year in a row where guns were the leading cause of death among children. And early data shows 2022 is likely to continue that trend. A pediatric trauma surgeon and the lead author of the study calls gun violence one of our chief public health crises.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now let's take a quick look at some other big stories in the news. Former President Donald Trump's election interference case in Georgia is moving forward. Yesterday, he turned himself in to Fulton County authorities and is now free on a $200,000 bond.
--:-- Shamita Basu: By now, this is a familiar process, one of several criminal cases against Trump. But the Georgia case stands out in a few ways. It was the first where he had to take a mugshot. And unlike federal and New York state courts, Georgia allows cameras in the courtroom.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So there's a possibility that Trump's arraignment, where he's expected to plead not guilty, might be broadcast live. More now on the deadly crash of the plane believed to be carrying Yevgeny Pregosian, head of the Wagner mercenary group.
--:-- Shamita Basu: The Wall Street Journal reports that preliminary U government assessments say this was an assassination. They rule out a missile attack, but the crash could have been caused by a bomb on board or sabotage.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Officially, the Kremlin has denied that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an assassination of Purgosian. Putin did appear to confirm Purgosian's death, speaking about him in the past tense. He called him someone who made mistakes, a person with a, quote, complicated fate.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And in Hawaii, Maui County is suing Hawaiian Electric. It alleges that the utility company failed to maintain its power equipment during a windstorm, causing the recent wildfires on the island. It also says the company should have cut power when warnings came about high risk of fires.
--:-- Shamita Basu: This was America's deadliest wildfire in more than a century. At least 115 people are dead and hundreds unaccounted for. The flames caused an estimated $5.5 billion in damage.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Hawaiian Electric says it's focused on the recovery and is disappointed that Maui County sued while investigations are ongoing. The latest suit is one of several the company is facing involving the wildfires.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We're going into a huge weekend in sports with plenty of options for fans. Take your pick. What do you want to watch? Everything from gymnastics to football to baseball to soccer is on this weekend.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Simone Biles competes at the U.S. Championships, where she could bring home an eighth all-around national title. College football returns. Plus, the Little League World Series wraps up on Sunday.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Also, on Saturday, we have Lionel Messi making his regular season debut for Major League Soccer's Inter-Miami. Taylor Twellman is the lead announcer for MLS Season Pass on Apple TV and a former pro soccer player himself.
--:-- Taylor Twellman: We caught up with him. He says he's having the best time seeing Messi play in the U.S. so far. It's been the most insane four weeks of my broadcasting career.
--:-- Taylor Twellman: Now, I've been doing this for about 13-plus years, and I've seen in sports one person kind of take the world by storm. Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Muhammad Ali, and now in this sport, it's Lionel Messi.
--:-- Taylor Twellman: Twelman tells us coaches and players are ripping up their game plans now that Messi is in the picture. But there is a careful balance to strike. The moment you start thinking too much about Lionel Messi, and Tato Martino, they've already won.
--:-- Taylor Twellman: And so that's the most intriguing part for me as a former player, now as a broadcaster, is when I talk to the opposing coaches, general managers, presidents, even owners, overthinking, over pontificating about Lionel Messi and his impact, he's already won the game because he has got you second-guessing everything.
--:-- Taylor Twellman: Twelman says he's not betting on Inter Miami to make the playoffs because Messi will need to rest at some point. They've got to be mindful of that. But my word, if they get into the playoffs and win two trophies, I'll put that up with anyone else in the history of sport of the greatest turnaround in less than 12 to 16 weeks. It's truly remarkable.
--:-- Shamita Basu: You know, Anderson Cooper from TV, from his CNN show, his reporting from war zones and disasters. What you don't know a whole lot about is his personal life. And that's by design. He's a pretty private guy.
--:-- Shamita Basu: But for this week's episode of Apple News in Conversation, I sat down with Anderson Cooper and we had a really personal, raw chat about a topic that's been on his mind a lot lately, how we process grief.
--:-- Shamita Basu: See, Anderson is now the last living member of his nuclear family. His dad, Wyatt, died when Anderson was 10. His brother, Carter, died a decade later. And in 2019, their mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, died.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For a long time, Anderson kind of resisted engaging with all the negative feelings that come with loss. But he's starting to process it. And last year, he came out with a podcast called All There Is, where he talks to people like Stephen Colbert and Molly Shannon about how loss has changed them.
--:-- Anderson Cooper: It's been a whole new chapter for me. If you want to be the most human you can be, that involves loss and suffering. And it allows you to be more fully human. It allows you to reach out and have connections with people and to understand pain.
--:-- Anderson Cooper: Anderson is not particularly comforted by cliches, so you won't find a lot of them in this conversation. Instead, there are a lot of practical but sort of novel ideas about grieving that I really appreciated hearing about.
--:-- Anderson Cooper: One idea that he shared with me was even after someone has died, your relationship with them doesn't end. It doesn't get frozen in time. You can still learn things about them and understand them in new ways after death.
--:-- Anderson Cooper: My dad lived till 50, But I know him more now because I have two boys and he had two boys. And so I understand more about what was going on in his head. And he and I were so much alike that I feel so much closer to him in that.
--:-- Anderson Cooper: And that's, yeah, that is a great blessing. When someone you know has experienced a loss, it can be hard to know what to say. This is also something Anderson has spent a lot of time thinking about.
--:-- Anderson Cooper: I tend to just ask more questions about not the permutations of the death itself, but about the details of somebody's life. So what was their name? What were they like? What did you guys do together? What did you enjoy doing with each other?
--:-- Shamita Basu: One of the things somebody pointed out to me, and is absolutely true, is rarely does anyone ever say their name. And rarely does anyone ever ask their name.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And I think, to me, that idea of asking somebody the name of their loved one, to me, that's become really important. I'll say for me, this episode felt particularly difficult and relevant.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Just two weeks ago, my father-in-law died. He was such a sweet and loving presence in our family. One thing he did that meant a lot to me is he listened to this show every single day on his desktop computer.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And he always had something to say about a story or an interview. To Anderson's point, I will tell you his name. He's Thomas Nolan, and I'll miss him.
--:-- Shamita Basu: I am taking a little time off to rest and recharge. You'll still hear me on In Conversation while I'm away. My full interview with Anderson Cooper is out now in the podcast app.
--:-- Shamita Basu: And if you're listening in the Apple News app right now, it's queued up to play for you next. Enjoy the weekend, and my colleagues will be back with the news on Monday. Thank you.
