Fridays are awesome. This is CNN STUDENT NEWS, 10 minutes of commercial-free current events,
featuring some big debates from Wednesday night.
Fifteen of the Republican candidates hoping to win their party`s nomination for president
took the stage the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
The event had two parts. The first included four GOP presidential hopefuls and an afternoon
debate. The second included 11 and was broadcast in the evening primetime.
This was a chance for the candidates to grab the nation`s attention. They`re trying to
lay out their vision for America, to stand out from the other candidates, to generate
voter interests and to attract more donors to their campaigns.
The first debate for Democrats takes place in October and we`ll bring you highlights
of that event as well.
Now, here are some of the most significant from the Republican`s main event.
I mean, people at home want to know across this country, they want to know what we`re
going to do to fix this place, how we`re going to balance a budget, how we`re going to create
more economic growth, how we`re going to pay down the debt. What we`re going to do to strengthen
the military.
For the 55-year-old construction worker out in that audience tonight who doesn`t have
a job, who can`t fund his child`s education, I`ve got to tell you the truth. They could
care less about your careers, they care about theirs.
Yes.
Having met Vladimir Putin, I wouldn`t talk to him at all. We`ve talked way too much to
him.
What I would do, immediately, is begin rebuilding the Sixth Fleet, I would begin rebuilding
the missile defense program in Poland, I would conduct regular, aggressive military exercises
in the Baltic States. I`d probably send a few thousand more troops into Germany. Vladimir
Putin would get the message.
My grandfather instilled in me the belief that I was blessed to live in the one society
in all of human history where even I, the son of a bartender and a maid, could aspire
to have anything, and be anything that I was willing to work hard to achieve.
But he taught me that in Spanish, because it was the language he was most comfortable
in.
And it`s why I`m an unabashed supporter of the "fair tax," which would be a tax on our
consumption, rather than a tax on our productivity.
In other words, you`re not going to tax anybody for what they earn, whether it`s worker whose
working by the hour or whether it`s a hedge fund manager.
If they can produce something and bring capital and labor to create jobs, we need some jobs.
I am the only person on this dais -- the only person -- that fought very, very hard against
us -- and I wasn`t a sitting politician -- going into Iraq, because I said going into Iraq
-- that was in 2003, you can check it out, check out -- I`ll give you 25 different stories.
In fact, a delegation was sent to my office to see me because I was so vocal about it.
I`m a very militaristic person, but you have to know when to use the military.
I have no argument with having a strong leader, and to be aggressive where aggression is needed.
But it is not needed in every circumstance. There is a time when you can use your intellect
to come up with other ways to do things. And I think that`s what we have to start thinking
about.
And, Mr. Trump, we don`t need an apprentice in the White House.
We don`t need an apprentice in the White House. We have one right now. He told us all the
things we wanted to hear back in 2008. We don`t know who you are or where you`re going.
We need someone who can actually get the job done.
People are supporting me because I have a proven record of conservative leadership where
I cut taxes $19 billion over eight years. We shrunk the state government workforce,
we created a climate that led the nation in job growth seven out of eight years. We were
one of two states to go to AAA bond rating. People know that we need principle-centered
leadership, a disrupter to go to Washington, D.C.
I`m glad we`re having a discussion about taxes because everybody laments that we lose jobs
overseas, we have. Our companies, and our jobs are being chased overseas by a 70,000
page tax code, so, that`s why I`ve chosen to get rid of the whole thing, and have one
single rate, 14 and a-half percent for everybody.
A majority of the men and women on this stage have previously and publicly embraced amnesty.
I am the only candidate on this stage who has never supported amnesty and, in fact,
who helped lead the fight to stop a massive amnesty plan.
In 2013, when Barack Obama and Harry Reid joined the Washington Republicans in a massive
amnesty plan.
U.S. car company General Motors has agreed to pay a fine of $900 million. It`s a settlement
in a case that involved criminal charges against the company.
It started with the problem involving ignition switches. They could shut off while many GM
vehicles were being driven, disabling the airbags, power steering and power breaks.
At least 124 deaths had been tied to this issue.
GM started to recall millions of its cars early last year, but it admits it knew about
the problem almost a decade beforehand. That`s why criminal charges were brought. New individual
GM executives were charged.
A U.S. attorney says the law makes it hard to do, that`s easier to charge a company for
failing to report a problem. But the mother of the crash victim who died says the settlement
isn`t enough of a punishment.
A powerful earthquake jolted the South American nation of Chile Wednesday night. Its epicenter,
the point on earth right above where the quake started was in north central Chile, about
145 miles northwest of the capital city Santiago. And this quake was incredibly powerful.
A magnitude 8.3, one that strong happens only every five to 10 years, and at least 11 people
were killed.
But Chile gets a lot of quakes. Its buildings are constructed to resist the ground shaking.
Its tsunami warning system led to the evacuation of a million people in the affected region
before, and nearly 16-foot wave waft ashore.
Smaller waves travelled all the way to California and Hawaii. The nation`s preparedness for
this sort of disaster undoubtedly saved lives.
If you`re in the epicenter of an earthquake, you`re going to get no warning. There`s no
time for that. The warning depends on the distance you are to the earthquake epicenter.
An early warning system for earthquakes is expensive and also complex. Part of the problem
is we don`t have a system that can predict the earth is going to move. Our warming system
is based on the fact that the earth is already moving and then if you`re farther away from
that epicenter, we can give you some time to prepare. It`s a minor time but some time.
Unlike a tornado warning where Doppler Radar can see the rotation and issue a warning before
the tornado, an earthquake warning happens when the earthquake is already shaking. Another
limitation is how close the sensor is to the epicenter. If the sensor is 10 miles away
from the epicenter, it takes five seconds to get to that sensor. So, the more sensors
we get, the better the lead time we`ll get as well.
If we get 10 seconds notice of an earthquake that`s happening, especially a big one, you
can open up the elevators on the nearest floor. You can stop trains. You can stop all those
things that are moving before the shaking gets there.
This entire system works because of the speed of light, or the speed of the warning going
down the line, is 186,000 miles per second. The earth as it`s wiggling and shaking along
is going at 2 miles per second.
So, if you`re 30 miles away, your warning could be 15 seconds. It`s 15 seconds that
could save your life.
There are three U.S. states we haven`t announced yet on the Roll Call. Two of them lead us
off today.
The first is Wisconsin. And from the city of Neenah, we heard from Neenah High School,
home of the Rockets.
New Jersey is next. It`s in the township of Cinnaminson that you`ll find Cinnaminson Middle
School. The Pirates are watching.
And from Southeast Asia, hello to our viewers at Hong Kong International School. It`s in
Tai Tam, Hong Kong.
Before we go, a kind of tornado you`ve never seen before. This one is on the surface of
the sun. Scientists say it`s actually a giant mass of plasma stretched, twisted and turned
by the sun`s magnetic forces. NASA solar dynamics observatory, a spacecraft focused on the sun,
captured this video.
The plasma tornado is believed to be mostly made up of iron and it`s pretty hot, an estimated
5 million degrees Fahrenheit -- which makes it the star of our show, gave scientists something
to twist or shout about, and they didn`t even plan it. It`s just something special that
spun their way and brighten up another enlightening edition of CNN STUDENT NEWS.
I`m Carl Azuz. Have a great weekend ahead y`all.