CNN STUDENT NEWS, the current events you count on, the puns you put up with, and the sweater
vest you love.
I`m Carl Azuz.
Here we go.
Hong Kong, we talk a lot about this part of Southeast Asia a year ago when thousands of
protesters shut down parts of its business district.
Today,
we`re following up on what`s happened since then.
Officially, Hong Kong is a special administrative region of China.
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency says Hong Kong is not an independent
country, but people there have certain freedoms, like freedom of the press, freedom of assembly
and expression that the communist Chinese government
does not allow in other places.
Hong Kong`s government type is listed as a limited democracy.
Over the past year, those limits have been tested.
How does Hong Kong operate?
When Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, it was agreed the city would operate
under a principle
called "one country, two systems".
That means it`s officially a Chinese territory but it still maintains its own currency, government,
and laws.
For example, residents can protest, they can criticize the government and the press is
not censored.
Britain and China also agreed Hong Kong`s high degree of autonomy would last for 50
years, with the aim of eventually establishing an election
system based on universally suffrage, that means "one man, one vote".
Hong Kong has a population of 7 million.
But currently, only an elite committee of just 1,200 people have any say in deciding
the city`s top
leadership, many of whom are Beijing loyalists.
What about full democracy?
A lot of people here say they`re ready change.
They`ve been pushing for one man, one vote for years.
But China has been stalling.
Trigger point?
In August 2014, China finally unveiled its plan for democratic reform, ruling Hong Kongers
could only vote for their next chief executive
from a list of candidates that had to be pre-approved by Beijing.
That sparked widespread outrage, fueling Hong Kong`s occupy or umbrella movement, a mostly
student-led protests against the Beijing plan.
Thousands of people filled the streets for months, pitching tents, shutting off key parts
of the city, creating works of art all in the name of
democracy.
It was unlike anything the city has ever seen before.
Hong Kong lawmakers later voted down Beijing`s proposal, with some saying they would never
accept a, quote, "fake democracy".
So, what happens next?
For now, the status quo remains, with no clear plan forward.
The only thing certain in Hong Kong`s future is a return to full Chinese control in
2047.
Students at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, also known as Ole Miss, are having
a vote this afternoon.
They`ll be deciding to whether
or not to remove the Mississippi state flag from campus.
Its design features the Confederate battle flag, which represented Confederate states
during the U.S. Civil War.
In recent decades, there`s been a lot of controversy over the Confederate flag.
A number of groups in the South have pushed for its removal from
public buildings and state capitals.
They see it as a symbol of racism.
This summer, South Carolina`s government voted to remove the Confederate battle flag from
its capital, after a racially motivated shooting in the
state.
Yesterday, Green County, Tennessee, was considering the flag over its court house.
Supporters see it as a symbol of wartime sacrifice, history and
Southern heritage.
Several U.S. states including Mississippi still maintains some form of Confederate design
in their state flags.
In the charming southern city of Oxford, Mississippi, relics of the Confederacy are pervasive.
This
week, the university of Mississippi associated student body senate will vote on a resolution
to try and remove one of those symbols, the
Mississippi state flag.
The explanation of why lies largely in the past.
Twenty-year-old sophomore Senator Allen Coon introduced the proposal to take down the flag.
We`ve flown this symbol of oppression, we defended it, we fought for it and it`s time
to
recognize that that was a mistake.
Over the years, Dr. Jennifer Stollman with the Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation
has chronicled the complex on-campus history.
They`re creating the best and most inclusive campus that they can and they`re navigating
some old
narratives with new expectations.
Last year, a spasm of race-related episodes dragged (ph) painful memories here on campus,
including a noose that was hung from
the statue of James Meredith.
He`s the first black student to attend the university here, desegregating it in 1962.
Even still, at least one student senator says there`s more to be proud of here than not,
which is why he`s opposing the resolution to bring down the
Mississippi state flag.
Student Senator Andrew Soper wrote in a change.org petition, "Removing symbols, flags and monuments
will do nothing to change the way
people feel in their hearts.
Ole Miss students and my fellow Mississippians, rise up and push back on political correctness
and support
the state flag."
The school is deeply rooted in tradition, a vestige of Southern history and pride.
It`s not Instagram.
It`s not Twitter.
It`s not Facebook.
It`s CNNStudentNews.com, where our producers look for "Roll Call" requests.
We`ve got one yesterday from Chengdu, China.
It`s in the central part of the world`s most populous country and it`s where you`ll find
Chengdu
International School.
Falcon Ridge Middle School is next.
The Falcons are flying over Apple Valley, Minnesota.
And rounding out our roll, American Christian Academy in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
We`re saluting the Patriots.
Think about the energy given off by a nuclear bomb.
Scientists worldwide are trying to figure out how to control and contain that same reaction
to a
process called nuclear fusion.
It could yield clean energy with no pollution.
It could bring power to the world with a relatively low cost,
but it`s very hard to do.
The energy it could take to achieve nuclear fusion could be greater than the energy the
fusion yields, and critics say the investment of billions
could better be spent on researching renewal resources instead.
We`re hungry for power and we`re constantly looking for more.
What if there was a way to get all the energy we could ever dream off, a way that wouldn`t
pollute the planet and would never run out?
This is the world`s largest, most powerful laser.
My role here at the NIF is to lead and execute experiments primarily in pursuit of achieving
thermonuclear ignition, fusion.
Our stars power themselves through a process called nuclear fusion, something that`s been
nearly impossible for us to recreate on Earth, but
many believe that we`re on the brink of cracking that code.
And investors and governments around the world are spending billions to make sure we do.
The NIF is, in fact, 192 separate lasers and we`re taking a huge amount of energy, megajoules
of energy and we`re going to focus all of it
down on air filled capsule, which consists of deuterium and tritium, which are isotopes
of hydrogen.
And so, what we`re trying to do is get that fill up to such high temperatures and densities
that those hydrogen atoms actually fuse, and as
I do so, the remaining atoms will weigh a little bit less and that liberate in mass
gets converted into energy and that`s the fusion energy we`re
working to harness.
Thousands of miles away in France, the world`s most ambitious attempt at fusion is being
built.
This is ITER, a multinational project to
make fusion a reality.
Construction should be completed by 2020, with a price tag of an estimated $20 billion.
Unlike NIF, which is experimenting
with lasers and x-rays to achieve a fusion reaction, ITER will use something called Tokamak,
to activate hydrogen isotopes with powerful
magnetic fields, electricity and extreme heat to try and achieve fusion.
The reaction could reach temperatures 10 times greater than the sun`s core.
We get a good portion of our energy on earth from the sun.
It is the lifeblood of humankind and everything living on earth.
So, if we can
harness that within the laboratory, if we can figure out how to make this a viable energy
source, that`s huge.
Before we go, something you`d never expect a Swiffer Sweeper to pick up, an owl, in a
guy`s kitchen.
He came home one night to find the
uninvited visitor and thankfully he had a camera as well as a sweeper.
Slowly, slowly and begging the owl not to fly at him, after all, it was giving him a
pretty intense stare.
The man lowered the animal through the
opening in the window, flick it from the broom and celebrated.
Of course, he could have tried soothing the savage beast with music like owl, fly away.
Could have also offered it food if he had any owl pellets.
It was a glaring challenge the man hopes won`t come beck (ph).
A staring contest the owl won, though we doubt it gave a hoot.
We sure hope you`ll swoop by tomorrow for more CNN student hoos.