CNN 10 February 1, 2017

CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Hi. I'm Carl Azuz for CNN 10. And it's great to see you this Wednesday, the first day of February 2017.

Here we go -- the first foreign leader to meet with newly inaugurated U.S. President Donald Trump was British Prime Minister Theresa May. She visited Washington, D.C. last week. And she carried with her an invitation for President Trump to attend an official state visit with Queen Elizabeth II.

A state visit is a very formal event. A foreign leader gets a grand welcome from Britain's royal family. There's a banquet at Buckingham Palace, a horse drawn carriage procession plank by soldiers.

President Trump's invitation is unusual in that visit would happen later this year. No U.S. president has ever made a state visit to the U.K. in his first year in office.

Former President Barack Obama had been in office for more than two years. Former President George W. Bush, more than two and a half years.

There are a more than a million signatures on a British petition calling for President Trump's state visit to be cancelled. Many Britons are protesting President Trump's executive order concerning immigration and refugees. There's also a counter-petition in support of Trump's visit that got more than 100,000 signatures. The invitation will now be debated in Britain's parliament.

Prime Minister May says President Trump's invitation stands. It's one many examples of the exceptionally close ties that Britain and America have shared for decades.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Winston Churchill was first to coin the phrase "special relationship". It was 1946, shortly after World War II. And he was referring to the bond between Britain and the United States.

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: He recognized that the future of Great Britain, the future of the British Empire depended on getting support from the American President Franklin Roosevelt.

KAYE: Presidential historian Tim Naftali says President Franklin Roosevelt was impressed with Churchill's doggedness.

NAFTALI: So, the two of them bonded because they both recognized a threat to civilization. And in the end, they weren't successfully together to win a war.

KAYE: They fought their common enemies from World War II, Japan and Nazi Germany. After Roosevelt's death, Churchill called him "the greatest American friend Britain had ever known."

In British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, President Ronald Reagan found his political soul mate. The two first met back in 1975 in London. And their relationship changed history. She spoke of him fondly at his 2004 funeral.

MARGARET THATCHER, FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: He sought to mend America's wounded spirit, to restore the strength of the free world, and to free the slaves of communism.

KAYE: She was his partner in dealing with the Soviet Union and encouraged him to speak to Mikhail Gorbachev.

NAFTALI: It was very useful for Ronald Reagan to have someone from a different country that he completely trusted and someone who could provide him with some guidance as to how to deal with the Soviets.

KAYE (on camera): Their relationship will likely be remembered as the closest transatlantic relationship between Britain and the U.S., with Thatcher years ago calling Ronald Reagan "one of the greatest men of our time" and "one of the greatest American presidents of all time".

(voice-over): After 9/11, President George W. Bush looked to his partner across the pond, British Prime Minister Tony Blair to help fight terrorism.

TONY BLAIR, FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I have admired him as a friend and I regard him as a friend. I have taken the view that Britain should stand shoulder to shoulder with American after September 11th.

NAFTALI: Blair suffered huge political costs for that. People called him a lap dog of George W. Bush.

KAYE: In his memoir, Blair wrote that Bush sincerely believed in spreading freedom and democracy.

Years later, President Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron joined forces against terrorists in the Middle East.

NAFTALI: There were joint operations in Afghanistan. They helped each other out in Iraq.

KAYE: There was a sense of camaraderie, as well as a deep mutual respect.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is a special relationship and an essential relationship. I believe that it is stronger that it has ever been.

KAYE: Special relationships only strengthened by common enemies and common goals.

Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: U.S. attorney general is a cabinet level job in the federal government. The A.G. leads the Justice Department, serving as America's top legal official.

President Trump nominated Jeff Sessions for the job. He's a Republican senator from Alabama. But it's up to the rest of the Senate to either confirm or deny him the position. And, of course, on Monday, lawmakers hadn't done that.

At the time, Sally Yates was filling in as America's acting attorney general. She was appointed to the Justice Department by former President Obama. And on Monday night, President Trump fired her. Why?

Yates told the Justice Department not to defend the president's recent executive order concerning immigration and refugees, an overview of that order and both sides of the controversy surrounding it are explained on our January 30th show. That's on our homepage.

Why did Attorney General Yates go against the Trump administration? She says she wasn't convinced that the executive order was lawful or that it was consistent with her responsibilities to, quote, "seek justice and stand for what is right."

The White House said Yates betrayed the Department of Justice and that she was fired for, quote, "refusing to enforce a legal order designed to protect the citizens of the United States."

Shortly after Yates was fired, a U.S. attorney named Dana Boente was sworn in to temporarily lead the Justice Department. He then told government lawyers to defend the president's immigration and refugee order. The Senate is expected to vote today on whether to confirm Jeff Sessions as the attorney general going forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ (voice-over): Ten-second trivia:

The International Space Station and many other satellites orbit in what layer of Earth's atmosphere?

Troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, or thermosphere?

The thermosphere, which extends from about 53 to 375 miles above the Earth is home to the ISS.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: Not to mention a bunch of junk, space junk, chunks of dead satellites, used rockets or tiny metal pieces that can pose a big threat to the working satellites that bring us Internet access, phone access, navigation. Scientists estimate that there are more than 7,000 tons of trash orbiting the Earth.

And this year, the United Kingdom's Surrey Space Centre is launching a mission that test ways to clean up space.

A giant net could be used to catch satellites instead of butterflies. A harpoon can help a space trash collection system spear chunks of junk and what scientists call a drag sail could be attached to future satellites and act like a giant parachute that would slow them down once they are done working and cause them to move toward Earth faster and then burn up sooner in its atmosphere.

The mission, which is funded by the Europe Commission, costs a little less than $16 million and it would use cubes to test these junk removal tools.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The people on this planet generate over one billion metric tons of waste each year. But did you know that we've created loads of junk in space?

SUBTITLE: Space junk orbits Earth.

CRANE: The earth is surrounded by a growing cloud of orbiting garbage that according to NASA contains at least 20,000 objects larger than a softball, 500,000 bigger than a marble, and millions of pieces of debris, they're simply too small to track.

The trash comes from explosions, spacecraft collisions and expendable rocket stages. And as our space environment is getting more congested and complicated, it's also getting cluttered with all kinds of garbage.

The problem is, is that these pieces of trash are traveling at speeds up to 18,000 miles per hour, which is almost 10 times faster than a bullet. Even a paint flake at that speed becomes a missile.

The International Space Station even had to replace windows when debris paint flakes caused damage to them. It's not uncommon that ISS has to adjust its orbit to dodge some space junk.

Because this trash posed a threat to our properties in space, the Department of Defense catalogs and tracks those items that are bigger than a softball. They're currently building what they call a "space fence", which is just a radar-based space surveillance system that will allow the Air Force to better track space debris and artificial satellites.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: You can't stick a landing to score a perfect "10 Out of 10" without first taking the junk. That's exactly what Ivan Briggs did ahead of his 90th birthday.

The World War II veteran who said age has never been a problem for him also said he had no fear about the jump, that it was pure enjoyment.

Briggs' wife of 65 years says he got lots of hugs when he was safely back on the ground. And the soon-to-be nonagenarian says he'd like to take the leap again.

Of course, any jump like that takes a little plane-ing. You're going to catch a lot of air, you'll need a good windbreaker and you'll fall a long way while you shoot the breeze. But with the ground back beneath your feet, things tend to terra firm up.

That's about all the puns I'm dropping today on CNN 10. I'm Carl Azuz, wishing you happy landings.

CNN 10 January 25, 2017

CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: First story on CNN 10 today: executive actions from the White House concerning a pair of controversial oil pipelines.

We're explaining it all starting with a look at the Dakota Access Pipeline.

It's a $3.7 billion project that would join oil rich areas of North Dakota to Illinois, where it can then be distributed to other parts of America. Under the Obama administration, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved the plan to build it last summer.

But the Standing Rock Sioux, a Native American tribe whose reservation is near a pipeline construction site sued the government. They said that the pipelines being built on sacred ground, that it would destroy Native American burial sites and that if it ruptures underneath Lake Oahe, where part of the pipe would run, it could contaminate the tribe's water supply.

Thousands of activists joined the Standing Rock Sioux in protest and late last year, the Obama administration reversed its decision and said it would not allow construction under Lake Oahe.

Supporters of the project say it's safe, that its construction would create thousands of jobs and that those whose land is affected already agreed to allow construction. The company building the pipeline called the Obama administration's reversal politically motivated. Now, the Standing Rock Sioux is calling a Trump administration decision politically motivated.

Yesterday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive action to move the Dakota Access Pipeline forward. The tribe said it was unfairly rerouted toward their land without their consent. The White House says the pipeline is good for jobs, growth and energy.

You'll notice some similarities between this controversy and one over another pipeline, the Keystone XL Pipeline. President Trump signed an action yesterday to advance that one as well.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The Keystone XL pipeline extension would stretch about 1,200 miles, most of it in the United States, from Alberta, Canada down to Nebraska.

There are lots of pipelines out there, some of which would connect with this.

So, why all the fuss about this extension?

First of all, the environment. Opponents say that they fear that this will spoil the landscape. If there is a spill, that it could contaminate ground water, hurt humans and animals. And they say this is dirty oil, a type of oil that when it's burned, produces more greenhouse gases.

Supporters say the company that wants this, TransCanada, has already promised much more robust safety measures, that rail shipments are rising already to bring this oil in and the rail shipments are riskier than the pipeline would be.

The second issue, jobs. Supporters like to cite a study that says somewhere around 42,000 jobs or more would benefit from this pipeline. That includes not only the people who work on it, but people in restaurants and hotels and supply houses.

But opponents say that's all temporary. That's for one or two years while this thing is built. In the end, there may be only 50 permanent jobs coming out of this.

So, that raises the real question, why would you want to build this thing at all? It's only 36 inches across. Does it really make a difference?

Supporters say yes, it does. It means about 830,000 barrels of oil a day coming into the United States from a secure ally, reducing our dependence on overseas oil from places like Venezuela or the Middle East.

Whereas opponents say, look, it is just not worth it. For all those various reasons they've already cited, even as supporters continue to say, look, it's time, after all this debate, to dig the trenches and to get this pipe into the ground.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The one thing you need to know is that an executive action is not as broad or as long-lasting as a law.

An executive order and an executive action in many ways, there's already a difference.

So, an executive order is a statement of policy by the president of the United States. It's a message to government departments about exactly how a law should be implemented and the rules under which the policy of the administration will be followed. Presidents use it especially when they can't get laws passed through Congress. A law is clearly the preferable way for presidents to go because it lasts longer and it's more difficult to overturn.

President Obama's executive orders are now very vulnerable to the pen of Donald Trump, just as the executive orders that Trump is now signing could be overturned by the next president.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ (voice-over): Ten-second trivia.

What continent is largest in terms of land area and population?

Asia, Africa, North America or South America?

Whether you're talking about population size or size in square miles, no continent comes close to Asia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: So many of us are guilty of this: we get a new phone or a computer, microwave or TV and we toss out the old one. That's where this problem begins and it's building in Asia.

A United Nations University study says more than 12 million tons of electronic waste were thrashed in Asia between 2010 and 2015. There are several reasons why: one, there are more types of electronics people can buy. Two, there are more people in Asia who can afford to buy them. And three, the electronics being made don't tend to last long, so there's more need for replacements.

Recycling can help, but an investigation by an environmental group found that even recycled electronics from the U.S. sometimes found their way to landfills in Asia.

So, what happens to it when it gets there?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Did you ever wonder what happens to your old computer or TV When you throw it away? Chances are, some of your electronic junk ends up here in China, the world's biggest dumping ground for electronic wastes.

Electronic waste or e-waste arrives by the truckload to a southeastern Chinese town called Guiyu where locals are experts at ripping apart electronic trash.

There are e-waste disposal businesses here on nearly every street.

(on camera): And in mom-and-pop operations like this, workers rip apart the appliances and pull out the most valuable elements and components for resale to future manufacturers.

(voice-over): They worked fast identifying and sorting plastic with the help of a flame.

The women here tell us all the trash is foreign, even though Chinese law bans the import of electronic waste.

The most valuable electronic guts like circuit boards are separated and the rest treated like some giant plastic harvest. Workers take piles of plastic chips and mix them into what looks like a synthetic stew.

Guiyu be one of the world's largest informal recycling operations through e-waste, but it is dirty, dangerous work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When recycling is done in primitive ways like what we have seen here in China with the electronic waste, it -- it is hugely devastating for the local environment.

WATSON: Greenpeace says the water and air in Guiyu is terribly polluted.

(on camera): I am walking on flat screams these come from laptops or from computer monitors or, or video TV screens and they can contain a highly toxic chemical, mercury, and you can see how those chemicals could then seep into the environment and even into the food supply of nearby livestock.

(voice-over): But talk to someone who doesn't rely on e-waste to make a living and you get a very different story.

(on camera): Do you guys drink the water here?

(voice-over): These migrant farmers say they don't dare drink the water and one of them has a shocking admission.

MIGRANT FARMER (through translator): It may not sound nice, but we refuse to eat this rice that we plant because of all the pollution. We don't know who ends up eating this rice.

WATSON: Workers here complain their business has been hurt by a crackdown on e-garbage smuggled in from the US, Europe, and other Asian countries, but as Chinese consumers become more wealthy, the country is increasingly generating its own e-waste. That puts new pressure on China as well as the rest of the world to figure out a cleaner, safer way to dispose of all this electronic junk.

Ivan Watson, CNN, Guiyu, China.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: Earning a perfect "10 Out of 10", this firefighter. He is using a sweet water jet pack to meet a simulated bridge fire face to face. And then he's got plenty of water to put it out. This is a part of a firefighting system in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It's reportedly seen an increase of buyers in recent years, but now, thanks in part to this, any blaze on a boat, bridge or coastal building now has a new enemy.

Why? Because he's jet packing a hose lot of anti-inflammatory that could engulf and water-down any nearby flare up to beat the heat.

I'm Carl Azuz for CNN 10.

CNN Student News - December 9, 2016

CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Hi, I`m Carl Azuz.

First up today on CNN STUDENT NEWS: the passing of an historic American. John Herschel Glenn Jr. popularly known as John Glenn died yesterday at the age of 95. A large part of his life was spent in the air. Glenn flew 149 combat missions in World War II and the Korean War.

He became a national hero, was one of America`s first astronauts. And in 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth. He reportedly wasn`t allowed on the moon mission, though, because President John F. Kennedy said he`d become too valuable as a national figure to go on
the flight.

On the ground, Glenn served in politics. He was U.S. Democratic senator representing Ohio for 24 years. He tried but failed early in his quest for the presidency in 1984, but 14 years after that, Glenn returned to the sky at the age of 77, becoming the oldest person to fly into space.

Next in the Middle East. Aleppo used to be the most populated city in the nation of Syria. A large part of it has been abandoned and destroyed by years of civil war. Rebels who`ve been fighting the Syrian government currently control part of Eastern Aleppo.

Syrian troops with the support of Russia`s military had been battling to get Aleppo back and they`ve made advances against the rebels in recent weeks. Syria says its targeting terrorists there. The nation`s president says recapturing Aleppo would be a significant step toward bringing Syria`s
five-year-old civil war to an end.

But a British intelligence leader says that Syria and Russia are trying to eliminate opposition in Aleppo at any price, and that that`s created a, quote, "human tragedy".

Thousands of civilians have been trapped in eastern Aleppo. There aren`t enough medical supplies to treat the wounded. Yesterday, Russia`s foreign minister said Syria had suspended combat in Aleppo, so that civilians could get out. He called it the largest ever evacuation for residents of eastern Aleppo.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUBTITLE: Why is Aleppo so important in Syria?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Aleppo is the commercial hub of Syria, symbolically unparalleled. This is which rebel forces piled in summer 2012, taking large part of it, holding back to a better equipped Syrian military, showing that they could get popular support in urban areas. It`s also where so much of the gross slaughter of this war occurred, where Syrian jets or helicopters just dropping the most crude devices known as barrel bombs would repeatedly kill children, doctors, target hospitals. And if it finds itself again in Syrian
government hands, that is an enormous propaganda coup for the Syrian regime itself, after its Russia and Iranian support, it now has control on pretty much of all the major population centers of Syria itself.

Secondly, the Syrian moderate forces themselves, they`re moving to that city in summer of 2012 showed they could be militarily effective. But if they get kicked out, they don`t really have anywhere else at this point to go. If these moderate forces move in to Idlib, they could well be being seen by the Americans particularly as too close to al Qaeda, a described terrorist group.

If east Aleppo falls, we simply don`t know how many civilians could get caught in this crossfire killed, injured (INAUDIBLE). Most importantly, if it does fall as well, it marks a turning point in this civil war, one from which it can be pretty hard for those forces, for everyone used to call a Syrian revolution to recover from.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: Every year since 1927, U.S. publication "TIME" Magazine has named a Person of the Year, someone its editors say had the, quote, "greatest influence, for better or worse on the events of the year.

Most U.S. presidents have been named since the tradition started. So as some other prominent world leaders, from the widely popular, to the highly controversial, movers and shakers, doctors who helped Ebola victims, protesters and popes have all received the title. And this week, U.S.

President-elect Donald Trump was named "TIME`s" Person of the Year.

The magazine`s editor called the choice one of the more straightforward ones. She described Mr. Trump`s appeal as, quote, "part hope, part snarl."

She said he framed tomorrow`s political culture by demolishing yesterday`s, and said 2017 would bring in the chance to fulfill promises and defy expectations like all newly elected leaders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUBTITLE: CNN STUDENT NEWS is changing, January 2017.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK GLASS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An extraordinary display by a flock of starlings, a so-called murmuration, a pulsating, palpitating example of swarm or group behavior. It`s something we see in lots of specifies, fish, bees, ants. Each individual, both one and the many at the
same time.

Scientists have long been fascinated by it and now convinced we can learn from it for our own devices.

Dr. Sabine Hauert is a Swiss American scientist. She describes herself as a swarm engineer. Her aim, to imitate nature.

SABINE HAUERT, SWARM ENGINEER: If you look at birds and ants, they can do these beautiful, complex behaviors and I take inspiration from these to engineer solutions for real world applications. So, we`re designing swarms of robots that could be used for outdoor applications and nano particles
that work in the trillions for cancer research.

GLASS: An arena in a robotic lab in Bristol in the west of England, how its research group are rallying their army of so-called killer bots.

Arranged at one end, a phalanx of them are ready for the order to move.

The thing I like about this is instantly, I recognize the sound of the swarm.

HAUERT (on camera): It definitely sounds like a swarm. It really bugged me.

GLASS: So, what`s the purpose of all this?

HAUERT: Robots are wonderful way to visualize swarm dynamics. And so, we use this as a proxy for the nano particles. Our nano particle robots are released from the vessel here on the side of the arena and then they move randomly and they can go and they can stick to cancer cells, which we
projected on this arena. And once they`ve been in by the cell, they turn blue.

And so, we use this to show that although these particles are great at accumulating within these cancer cells, they`re for penetrating into this robotic tissue. So, the group behavior is not great, even though the individual behavior is actually quite smart.

GLASS: Have you learned much from this already?

HAUERT: I learned tremendously just programming them and seeing how they behave.

GLASS (voice-over): Back in the arena, the killer bots form up again, ready to showcase that other swarm behaviors. The army is preparing to show its colors.

The bots demonstrate decision making by changing from red to blue as a group, repetiting (ph) how swarms might choose a nesting site.

This time, it`s all about synchronization, mimicking how fireflies can coordinate their glow. And here, like ants, creating a trail from a so- called source, transferring information back to their nests. The bots stopping once the link has been made.

And Hauert is hoping her research can find uses in the outside world -- a human-engineered robotic swarm to rival those created by nature.

HAUERT: I love to see these swarms of robots do things like monitor water sources, do things like explore a building that`s collapsed, do things like potentially clean up an oil spill. We can`t engineer systems like this yet, so I think, why not look at nature for some of these solutions?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: Before we go, you probably haven`t thought about asking for a penguin for Christmas? But this will probably change that. Santa Penguin just slipped some fresh squid under the tree.

These little helpers are part of the fun in what`s known as Bird Park in Japan. It`s not unusual for the local penguin family to don soccer jerseys when the World Cup is being played and Santa suits in December. The rest of the time, they just wear tuxedos.

Now, some might be a little flippant about this, to say something`s fishy about suiting up penguins. Maybe they`d call the idea north polarizing or say Santa`s reindeer don`t include Ramon, Nestor, Raul or Lombardo. But this could be a penguining of a new tradition and what better time to start
than the most punderful time of the year.

I`m Carl Azuz. Fridays are awesome.