CNN 10 - April 10 2017

CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: A lot of news to catch you up on this Monday. Thanks for watching CNN 10.

We start with reports of terrorist attacks in Northern Africa and Northern Europe. 

In the nation of Egypt Sunday, bombings at two Coptic Christian churches killed at least 43 people. The first blast took place during a service at St. George`s Church in the city of Tanta. Egypt`s state TV said a bomb was placed under a seat in the main prayer hall. And afterward, outside Mr. Mark`s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in the city of Alexandria, a suicide bomber set off explosives after police reportedly stopped the attack from entering the church. 

More than a hundred people were wounded in the two attacks. They took place on Palm Sunday. It`s the Sunday before Eastern and marks the beginning of Holy Week for the world`s Christians. 

The Coptic Orthodox Church was established by the apostle Mark in the 1st century A.D., according to the church`s history. Coptic Christians are a religious minority in Egypt. They make up about 10 percent of the country`s population and they`ve been targeted recently in recent years often by Islamic militants. The terrorists group ISIS, Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, said it was responsible for Sunday`s bombings. 

Condemnations of the attacks, condolences for the victims and support for Egypt`s government came in from political and religious worldwide.

Meanwhile, police in Sweden say a man suspected in participating in a terrorist attack there had shown sympathy to extremist groups, including ISIS. Another suspect has also been arrested. On Friday, a delivery truck was driven into a department store in the Swedish capital of Stockholm. 

Four people were killed in that attack and some of the 15 people injured were in critical condition as of last night. Thousands gathered on Sunday to remember the victims.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There`s been a fierce determination here in Sweden to get life back to normal. That message has come from the king and the prime minister, right down to the ordinary Swedes. So, imagine that this was the street where the attacker came thundering down in his track. 

That`s how busy it would have been. Amazing to think that there weren`t more deaths, that there weren`t more injuries. But the message here is that people should carry on with their ordinary lives in defiance of that horrendous terror threat.

The truck came thundering down here into this department store and they put up plyboard as you can see to replace that smashed window. And instead of just leaving it there, people are coming here and it`s so much turned into a makeshift shrine. 

You can see messages there. People have penned the message "RIP", but most noticeably and repeatedly the word "tillsammans" which means together. All the flowers have been taken from areas like this and place on some steps around the corner for a vigil that was a national moment for the country to come together.

There`s been a huge outpouring of gratitude as well to the emergency services and their rapid response to the attack on Friday. So, people are laying flowers on police cars for example with cards saying, "We`re proud of what you did." Max Foster, CNN, Stockholm, Sweden.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: The U.S. government now says it`s a priority to remove Syria`s leader from power. That`s a significant change for the Trump administration. It previously did not prioritize the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al Assad. But that was before a chemical weapons attack that was carried out last Tuesday killed 89 people in western Syria. The attack was widely blamed on Assad`s regime. 

And last week, U.S. President Donald Trump authorized a military strike against the Syrian airbase. It`s the location where the U.S. says the chemical attack was launched from. America has been carrying out airstrikes against ISIS locations in Syria for years. The missile strikes were the first time the U.S. struck a Syrian government position since the country`s civil war broke out six years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID PETRAEUS, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: It certainly sends a message to friends and foe alike that this president will take action when lines are crossed and that is again potentially very significant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: Syria denied carrying out the chemical attack last week and Russia and Iran, two countries that support Syria`s government say the U.S. strike broke international law and that they would, quote, "response strongly" to any aggression Syria.

The U.S. missiles were fired from U.S. warships in the Eastern Mediterranean. And in response and in apparent show of force, Russia has moved a warship to a port in western Syria. The Middle Eastern nation has continued operations at the damage airbase. 

In the U.S. capitol, Neil Gorsuch is set to sworn in today as the 113th justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Senate confirmed him on Friday with a vote of 54-45. One senator was absent. Justice Gorsuch fills the vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last February. 

If you missed any of our shows last week, we had a couple of in-depth explainers on the Senate`s rules, rule changes and confirmation process regarding Gorsuch. Our April 5th show defined terms like filibuster and the nuclear option. Our April 7th show explained how they actually played out. You can both of them from our homepage, CNN.com/CNN10. Just scroll down to our archives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

In what field are the terms strike, exposition and proscenium commonly used?

Theater, medicine, mixed martial arts or construction?

These terms are most often used in and around the theater. The proscenium relating to a common type of stage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: When I was founded in 1997, No Limits theater group, like its name suggests, wasn`t limited to people simply performing in plays. The actors were all students with hearing loss. And since then, the No Limits group has produced 100 plays in 13 states and includes three education centers. 

Its founder is a CNN hero who wants to give all students the tools to do well in life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHELLE CHRISTIE, CNN HERO: A child with a hearing loss can achieve anything. 

When you grow up, what do you want to be?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to be a successful businessman.

CHRISTIE: Hearing loss does not impact your intellect. But unfortunately, some of our kids fall to the cracks. Sometimes these kids are bullied and a lot of people in their life tell them that they can`t do things.

Are you ready for speech? Let`s practice out here.

Their parents are often told that their child is never going to learn to speak.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The third grade teacher called my mother. She said he can`t do anything by himself. My mother had her heart broken.

CHRISTIE: For the kids that are from low income families, they haven`t received a lot of early intervention. They get to us at 4 or 5 years old and they don`t know their name.

All right. Let`s work on your homework.

Our organization works with children with all different degrees of hearing loss. 

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Speak louder, have upbeat energy. Go.

CHRISTIE: We offer a free program to allow kids to have the education that they deserve.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to No Limits: Believe It or Not!

CHRISTIE: We started with a theater company -- 

KIDS: Mama Mia!

CHRISTIE: -- and I just said that I wanted to start an education center really helping families in poverty, for filling in all the language, the grammar, and also teaching them how to read and write.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: When I grow up, I want to become an artist.

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: I can do it.

CHRISTIE: That was so good!

Every ten weeks, we have a graduation ceremony and the kids write a speech and then they do it in front of a lot of people. When you see the parents in the audience, they`re thinking, oh my gosh, what`s going to come out.

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: I have a big sister named Emily and I`m nuts about her.

CHRISTIE: And then they see that their kids are just so brilliant and people are laughing at their jokes and clapping for them. It`s, oh my gosh, my child is going to be OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have experience failure because of my hearing loss, but it cannot defeat me. I say aloud, I can do it!

(APPLAUSE)

CHRISTIE: Every single child here has potential and it`s our job to pull it out of them and open as many as doors so they can shine.

These are my girls. I love you, guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: Lasers, fire and robots, oh my! It doesn`t sound like a typical circus, but it`s typical there at the Two Bit Circus. Its founder says it`s all about adding new styles of play. Large companies have brought in the Two Bit Circus for big budget events. They typically run between $50,000 and half a million dollars. Its influences are everything from classic arcades to VR entertainment. And where else can you watch an SUV go bungee jumping?

Amazing what people come up with off the big top of their heads. It might not be the greatest show on earth, but though the Two Bit costs more than two bits, it buys more than a shave and a haircut. And even if it follow circuitous logic, it puts new ideas in entertainment to the tech and the story brings us full circus on CNN 10.
I`m Carl Azuz. Come on back Tuesday.

CNN 10 - April 5 2017

CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: I`m Carl Azuz. Wherever and however you`re watching CNN 10, we welcome you.

Our first story, there`s been an apparent chemical weapons attack in the Middle Eastern nation of Syria. We`ve been covering the country`s civil war for years. It started in 2011. The United Nations estimates that 400,000 Syrians have been killed and millions have fled their homes. 

What made Thursday`s attack so horrible, even in this war-torn country, was that it reportedly involved a poisonous gas, according to multiple activist groups in the country. 

Witnesses say it killed dozens of people, including families, though there have been different reports on exactly how many people died. Hundreds have been injured. Doctors say the victims had breathing problems, pale skin, sweating, narrow pupils, all systems of a chemical attack. 

It happened in a western Syrian city that`s held by rebels who are fighting the government. Activist groups say the attack was carried by Syria`s government. It`s been blamed for previously using chemical weapons in the war. 

Syrian government forcers said yesterday, they categorically denied using chemical weapons in the area and that they held terrorist groups and their supporters responsible.

Leaders from all over the world gave enraged responses yesterday to the apparent chemical attack.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Chemical weapons are known as the "poor man`s atom bomb", because at relatively cost, they could have devastating effect, both in terms of casualties, but also in the sheer horror of the injuries and the sheer fear of contamination.

In the history of warfare, they`ve been used very seldom. You have to go back to World War II for widespread use, although Saddam Hussein used them in the late 1980s, killed some 5,000 people in northern Iraq, in Kurdistan. More recently, the Assad regime has used them repeatedly in the war in 

Syria. It`s estimated, some 1,500 people have been killed, 15,000 injured in chemical weapons attacks in Syria. 

The Geneva protocol of 1925 banned the use of chemical weapons in warfare, but not the production. It wasn`t until the early 1990s that the Chemical Weapons Convention banned the production and stockpiling as well. And since then, some 90 percent of the world`s chemical weapons have been destroyed. 

But still, to this day, there`s a lot out there in 17 countries still have them. From the ones you`d expect, North Korea for instance, which did not sign on to any of those treaties, but also the U.S., although the U.S. has committed never to use them in warfare and is committed to destroy all of them by the 2020s.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: This is expected to be a momentous weeks for the U.S. Senate. The Constitution gives it the power to confirm or deny the president`s Supreme Court nominees and President Donald Trump has nominated Federal Judge Neil Gorsuch to fill a vacancy on the high court. The 49-year-old judge has a lot of support among Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R), IOWA: The judge has an incredibly legal mind and a humility that keeps him well-grounded. He`s easily cleared every hurdle in place of him, in front of him for this position. It leaves me then very stunned why there`s this talk about a filibuster. It`s quite clear that if he isn`t qualified, then nobody is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: You heard Senator Grassley mentioned a filibuster. That`s a tool senators can use to try to block a nominee, and though three Senate Democrats have said they`ll support Judge Gorsuch, most of them are supporting a filibuster against him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: Our job is to assess whether the nominee will protect the legal and constitutional rights of all Americans, and whether the nominee recognizes the humanity and justice required when evaluating the cases before him. Unfortunately, based on Judge Gorsuch`s
record at the Department of Justice, his tenure on the bench, his appearance before the Senate, and has written questions for the record, I cannot support this nomination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: There`s another reason why many Democrats opposed Gorsuch. The vacancy on the Supreme Court opened up early last year when Justice Antonin Scalia died. But though then-President Barack Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland to replace Scalia, Republican leaders in the Senate did not give Judge Garland a hearing. They kept the high court vacancy opened in the election year, saying the next president should appoint Scalia`s replacement. Democrats say that was a type of filibuster.

So, what happens now? 

Republicans are expected to make a rule change in the Senate. It`s known as the nuclear option and it makes it easier for a majority party to overcome a filibuster. Usually, that takes 60 votes. The controversial nuclear option lowers that number to 51, a simple majority.

This rule change was first used by Democrats in 2013 when they controlled the Senate. They used it to get President Obama`s federal judges and cabinet nominees approved. If Republicans used it to get Judge Gorsuch approved, it`d be the first time the rule was employed to confirm a Supreme Court nominee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

Which of these human organs weighs the least?

The skin, the liver, the brain or the intestines?

In about three pounds in most adults, the brain is the lightest organ of these options.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: Regardless of what it weighs, though, can we train our brains to improve our attention spans, our memory, our intelligence overall? There are a lot of programs and games that aimed to do this. But the jury is still out on whether they`re a waste of money as many experts believed if they improve brain plasticity, the organ`s ability to learn new skills and adopt to its environment, even as we get older. Rachel Crane trains with the some brain games.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What is this exercise test?

HENRY MAHNCKE, CEO, POSIT SCIENCE: It improves your visual speed and attention.

CRANE: How does cognitive training work?

MAHNCKE: We can build brain exercises that literally wire the brain. Because the brain of people will change, it does that and eventually it achieves that goal of becoming faster and more accurate. We`ve actually build more than 29 exercises right now that target everything from memory, speed, attention, people skills, navigation, intelligence.

CRANE: There`s a good amount of controversy surrounding the efficacy of these brain training tools.

MAHNCKE: Sure. Independent academic review reviewed the cognitive training programs and pointed out that hey, some of them have no evidence and some of them have real evidence. And in fact, ours have shown to have the highest level of evidence in that academic review.

CRANE: So, real talk, how did I do?

MAHNCKE: You did great. First of all, your memory score was off the chart. I don`t actually think I`ve ever seen anyone come in and get that many items on memory right off the bat.

CRANE: All right.

MAHNCKE: And then speed was OK but you got some head room. But the important thing isn`t how do you do today. The important thing is, hey, where you do want to push your game tomorrow?

CRANE: Five stars right here. Yeah!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: Regardless of where you stand on brain games, there`s something simple we can all do to think more sharply, have more mental energy, concentrate more effectively, be less stressed, plus weight, give more vitamin D, possibly even live longer. It`s not by taking a magic pill. 

It`s by taking the time to get outside.

But research indicates there`s a difference between strolling around the city block and losing yourself among the trees. 

Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains how nature factors in to potentially living a longer life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I guess it was Kermit the Frog that said it`s not easy being green. But I`m here to tell you that being green can help you live longer. 

There`s plenty of data that show that we living creatures need to be spending time outdoors and we just don`t get enough of it.

There was a study out of Harvard and Birmingham Women`s Hospital, they looked at 100,000 nurses over many, many years. And what they found was that women who live in the greenest areas had a 12 percent reduced risk of early death as compared to women who did not. They found lower rates of certain types of mental illness, lower rates of depression, lower rates of anxiety, and just lower the rates of some of these mental illnesses.

Look, if you`re outside as opposed to inside, there is one absolute benefit that you`re going to get and that is that you`re less likely to be sitting. 

People have said that sitting is a new smoking. Here`s an easy way to avoid it. Get outside.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: We`re not sure getting this far outside qualifies, especially because according to "TIME" magazine, a spacewalk is significantly more dangerous than skydiving. It didn`t stop these astronauts from doing that last week and though a shield she was installing got away from her and floated into space, astronaut Peggy Whitson on her third mission to the International Space Station made history with her eight spacewalk, the most ever for a woman.

Being an astronaut is heavy on gravitas, though low on gravity. It carries both a lot and little weight, and orbiting outposts is astro-not for the faint of heart. You can`t be nebulous about your mission and you can`t be nervous about working abroad. On the ISS, you will never be farther from
home.

I`m Carl Azuz for CNN 10.