Fridays are all something we can appreciate. In less than nine minutes, you`ll see just
how much we`ve appreciated them through the years. I`m Carl Azuz. Welcome to CNN STUDENT
NEWS.
First up, the U.S. is looking for support in fighting ISIS, it`s a brutal terrorist
organization that`s taking over about a third each of Iraq and Syria. ISIS has murdered
scores of people who don`t share its extreme Islamic views. It wants to create a country
based on those views and declare war on the Western world. Iraqi forces have been fighting
ISIS with support from U.S. airstrikes. President Obama has authorized surveillance flights
in Syria. That`s expected to lead the U.S. airstrikes there, too. Yesterday, the White
House held a meeting to discuss other ways to take on ISIS.
Let`s start with this sobering thought. ISIS is not just a local Iraqi or Syrian problem.
Because in addition to the massive amounts of territory it has captured in Iraq and Syria,
it is now already threatening Saudi Arabia. Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. And as Americans,
the great concern is that they also have their sites set even further afield.
Intelligence officials believe that there are about 1,000 Westerners fighting for ISIS
in Iraq and Syria, among them, about 100 Americans. And it`s a belief of U.S. intelligence officials
that they are being trained and encouraged to carry out attacks when they return home.
In fact, it`s belief that ISIS veterans have already carried out two attacks in Europe.
The fear is that they will carry out many more going forward.
Now, U.S. intelligence and counter-terror officials are tracking ISIS veterans as best
as they can when they attempt to go home. The trouble is, even they will admit that
this is happening as U.S. intelligence capabilities are declining. For one, human intelligence,
known as humint in the intelligence community has declined, virtually non-existent in Syria
and it`s decreased in Iraq after the U.S. withdrew U.S. forces from Iraq.
Much of the intelligence done there by the U.S. military.
Two, what`s happening is, what`s called SIGINT, signals intelligence is declining as well.
In the post-Snowden era, terrorists don`t communicate the way they used to, on cell-phones,
or by email, on Internet websites, and that`s also decreasing the ability of intelligence
agencies to track their movements. Iraq and Syria are just two failed states that are
now home to terrorist group with international aspirations. There are others in Libya, in
Yemen and Somalia. And when I speak to U.S. intelligence officials, they say that nothing
keeps them up at night more than the threats emanating from there.
Another conflict U.S. officials are watching is in Ukraine. It`s a nation divided between
East and West. On one hand, many Ukrainians want closer ties with the European Union,
the West. Their new government sees that as the future of Ukraine. But other Ukrainians,
especially in some eastern regions are aligned with Russia. Some have been fighting for independence
from Ukraine. Western leaders accuse Russia of supporting these rebels with troops and
weapons. Russia`s denied that repeatedly. But the U.S. officials says as many as a 1,000
Russian troops cross the border into Ukraine Thursday, to fight alongside the rebels.
The U.S. is warning Russia of new sanctions, economic penalties if it doesn`t pull back.
Putin`s annexation of Crimea and his support for the pro- Russian separatists in eastern
Ukraine has raised his popularity with the Russian people. His ratings haven`t been so
high since he went to war with another former pro-Western neighbor, Georgia, in 2008. For
years,
Putin has made keeping Ukraine from joining the European Union and NATO, a major strategic
goal. But the recent ouster of pro- Russian president,
Victor Yanukovych, has really weakened his influence there. One way to stop Ukraine from
joining the West is to make it too unstable by keeping this insurgency running.
But sticking with the separatists brings Putin problems on the international front. There`s
no smoking gun against Russia for the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, but the Western
world says Putin`s support for the separatists has led to this tragedy.
The U.S. and the Europe have already imposed sanctions against Russian companies. Entire
sectors of the Russian economy could be next. It`s already been tittering on the brink of
recession for months, and the damage done to Russia`s world image from the conflict
will take years to undo.
In the choice between appeasing the Russian public and antagonizing the West, it appears
Vladimir Putin has no good options.
For more than seven weeks in the Middle East, explosions have been almost constant in Israel
and Gaza. Relative silence settled over the region in the past few days. No missiles from
Israeli airstrikes, no rockets from the Hamas-controlled territory of Gaza. It`s a truce, and as of
last night, it was holding. The most recent flare up between Hamas and Israel killed about
2200 people. Previous cease-fires have come and gone.
One thing that sets this one apart is that it`s open-ended, there`s no expiration date.
It doesn`t resolve any major issues between the two sides, but they both agreed to negotiate
in the days ahead.
From northwest to southwest, it`s time to see who`s watching on the CNN STUDENT NEWS
"Roll Call." From Tacoma, Washington, we`ve got the Koats (ph), with the K. Hello to our
viewers at Keithley Middle School. We`ll make a quick stop in the land of 10,000 lakes at
Washburn High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Good to see the Millers. And at Hagerman Municipal
Schools in Hagerman, New Mexico, it`s the Bobcats who round out today`s roll. Thanks
to all of you who made a request on Thursday`s transcript page.
All right, charging stations. They popped up in officers, airline terminals, parking
lots for electric cars. MIT workers in the research company had been developing technology
that merges a charging station with a park bench. It`s not cheap. While an everyday bench
is anywhere from 160 to 900 bucks, these could sell for thousands.
Here`s a look at an early project that eventually led to a new kind of bench. One that`s giving
folks a charge around Boston, Massachusetts.
I`m Sandra and I live in the city of Boston. We are here at MIT media lab. We made the
future for every park bench, a connected solar powered charger. Cities of the future need
to be designed around the human being, around us. We are seeing more and more efforts for
sittable (ph) cities.
We hacked a lot of things together that normally don`t make sense. We took six solar panels,
three lithium ion batteries, a waterproof plug, and then we have batteries sensing.
So, what does it mean, we actually noticed when and how many people are charging off
of solar energy and we can communicate that into the cloud. So, the bench right now is
actually connected to the Internet.
Before I was the anchor of CNN STUDENT NEWS, I was a news writer. And I always thought
that when I got on air, one thing I`d say regularly was how I felt about Fridays. Here`s
how that turned out in the years that followed.
Great? No. Excellent? No. Stupendous? Not quite. Fridays are awesome.
Fridays are awesome.
You know what`s not as awesome as Fridays? Stagnation.
Fridays are awesome.
Fridays are totally sweave (ph).
If I may quote myself.
Fridays are awesome.
Fridays.
I`ve got a special message, Fridays are awesome.
Awesome.
Fridays are acceptable.
Fridays are awesome.
You know why Fridays are awesome?
You`ve made it to Friday. Awesome.
Fridays are awesome.
Fridays may be awesome.
Awesome.
Fridays are awesome.
It`s the most awesome day of the week.
Pretty awesome. Not as awesome as Fridays.
You know it.
Fridays are always awesome.
It`s almost as awesome as Fridays.
Fridays awesome.
Oh, it`s Friday all right.
Fridays are awesome.
You guys are awesome.
Fridays are awesome.
We know that Fridays are awesome.
Fridays are awesome.
Awesome.
Fridays are awesome.
Even when they are freezing, Fridays are awesome.
Fridays are awesome.
All right, forgive Fridays, that was awesome.
Of course, some don`t think so. Shrimp, fish, chicken and catfish all hate Fridays. Many
vegans won`t touch fried eggs, and if you hate ghost stories and horror movies, you
are not going to like fright days. But even those of you who hate puns, love Fridays because
they mean too more days until pun days. Though next pun day are Monday, we will not be on
the air. We`ll be off for the Labor Day holiday. So, hope you enjoy it, and we`ll see you on
Tuesday our next news day. What? I`m Carl Azuz.