First up today on CNN STUDENT NEWS -- spotlighting the United Nations General Assembly. It`s
the 70th session of the international organization of 193 countries.
Yesterday, there were five world leaders we told you we were keeping an eye on.
U.S. President Barack Obama focused part of his speech on climate change and part on Syria`s
civil war. He called Syrian President Bashar al Assad a tyrant who kills innocent children.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speech came later. He also addressed Syria, but said its
government was fighting terrorism and that not cooperating with Syria`s leadership would
be a mistake.
Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed the environment, saying China would do its part
to reduce pollution.
And Cuban President Raul Castro in his first ever speech at the U.N. acknowledged diplomatic
relations have been reestablished between the U.S. and Cuba, but said the U.S. would
have to lift its economic embargo and do a lot more before things could be normal between
the two countries.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addressed the controversial nuclear deal involving his
country and six other nations lead by the U.S. He said the deal should contribute to
sustainable peace and stability in the Middle East and that the U.S. was, quote, "forced
to set aside pressure and sanctions and chose discussions instead."
U.S. congressional efforts to reject the deal stalled weeks ago in the Senate, which means
the Obama administration`s deal with Iran will go through.
But what about the next U.S. administration?
So, the Iranian deal is more than 50 pages long. It`s got a lot of documents, annexes,supplements.
It`s, you know, really easy to boil it down to a few sound bytes or a few bullet points.
But it`s a very technical and complex agreement.
President Obama has moved ahead with the deal, despite intense criticism from Republicans
and the fact that the majority of Americans are against it.
This is a bad deal with decades long consequences.
This deal is not just important to the United States or to international security. It`s
very important to Israel`s security. Israel sees an Iranian nuclear weapon as a threat
to its existence and wants to stop that at all costs.
Not surprisingly, there are a lot of differing views on how the 2016 candidates would treat
the Iran deal.
If I`m president, that deal won`t survive.
Rip to shreds this catastrophic deal.
Never, ever, ever in my life have I seen any transaction so incompetently negotiated.
The problem here is five other countries negotiated this deal with Iran for the past two years,
along with the United States, and it was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.
U.S. credibility is on the line.
Is it perfect? Well, of course, not. But is it a strong agreement? Yes, it is. And because
we`ve proven our commitment to diplomacy first, the world will more likely join us.
As I believe that this approach is the best way forward.
I`m going to vote against the agreement because I don`t think there`s significant leverage,
but it doesn`t mean that I`ll immediately not look at the agreement and cut it up without
looking to see whether Iran is complying.
But despite all the bluster, it`s really going to come down in the end to what Iran does.
If it plays by the rules and curbs its nuclear program for the next 10 to 15 years, that`s
one thing. But if Iran doesn`t and cheats, then the next commander-in-chief will have
some pretty tough decisions to make. And he or she is going to need the rest of the world
on their side.
Big announcement from NASA yesterday regarding Mars. It said that from time to time, water
flows across the Red Planet`s ancient surface. This does not mean scientists found life on
Mars or proof there ever has been. They say it offers hope that some microorganisms like
bacteria might have one of the elements there they need to survive.
NASA has found something that breathes new hope to the idea that microbial life may be
present on the Red Planet, liquid water.
Under certain circumstances, liquid water has been found on Mars.
Using its Mars reconnaissance orbiter, NASA has proven that seasonal dark streaks on the
surface of the planet called "recurring slope lineae" are caused by the flow of water.
Now, this water isn`t pure. It`s briny, filled with special kind of salt called perchlorate
salts.
This is important because the salt almost acts like an anti-freeze, lowering the freezing
point of the water, allowing it to stay in a liquid state.
Scientists have long known that the Mars of 3 billion years ago was very wet, possibly
even boasting a massive ocean 1 mile deep. But most of
that water has since disappear and scientists have only been able to find evidence of water
in the form of ice. Most of it being trapped at the poles and some small amounts of water
in the atmosphere.
Now, that we found liquid water, not only does it increase our chances at finding life,
it may also help humans survive on the planet one day.
We haven`t been able to answer the question, does life exist beyond Earth? But following
the water is critical in all of that.
The presence of liquid water could change the architecture of NASA`s manned mission
to Mars, scheduled for the 2030s. The water could be purified for irrigation, turned into
oxygen, even broken down into liquid oxygen and hydrogen and then use for rocket fuel.
The problem is, scientists don`t know the source of the water, but are exploring different
theories like underground aquifers.
One thing is for sure, the search for life on Mars just got a whole lot more exciting.
Unless you live in an area where there was a lot of cloud cover, like we do, unfortunately,
Sunday night was a great one for stargazing or let`s say moongazing.
First reason, there was a lunar eclipse when the sun, earth and moon were all lined up
in that order. Scientists say because earth`s atmosphere filters out blue light, the moon
or part of it can take on a reddish tint, what some call a bloodmoon. Here, you can
see the effect this has on our natural satellite.
Second reason, a supermoon. In the moon`s elliptical orbit around earth, it was at perigee,
its closest point. That made it appear larger than usual.
Time to take three -- three of the schools watching today and making one requests on
our transcript page at CNNStudentNews.com.
Like the International School Manila. It`s in Manila, the capital of the Philippines.
Stateside, we`re stopping by Iowa. It`s where we heard from Four Oaks Residential Treatment.
It`s in the city of Independence.
And in another "I" state, we`re talking about Idaho. We`ve got the Phoenix watching at Lincoln
High School.
In eastern North Carolina, there`s a town called Conetoe, population: 300. Despite being
surrounded by farmland, the nearest grocery store is 10 miles away, making this town a
food desert.
The pastor of Conetoe Chapel Missionary Baptist Church decided to do something about that.
He started the Conetoe Family Life Center, a nonprofit that enlists dozens of young people
to harvest almost 50,000 pounds of food a year. He`s today`s "Character Study".
Conetoe is a community with poverty. It`s a rural area, but also a food desert, that
do not have access to fresh, affordable food.
I`ve been a pastor here 12 years.
Early on, I was spending more time in funerals than anything else.
Diabetes, high blood pressure, unhealthy lifestyles, I had to do something.
If you take what you had, God can transform your health situation, your food desert situation.
I could not grow food by myself. So I had to come to the community.
All right. Come on, guys. Who want to do eggplants?
It`s a generational but the children, they`re responsible for planting, cultivating, and
also harvesting the food.
One of our goals is to get as much fresh food in the homes as possible. They make the families
healthier. It`s a game changer.
This garden has changed our community life. It`s a place where we can produce, a place
we can play. It`s a place where we can live.
"Olive Trees" is a landscape painting by Vincent Van Gogh. It was completed in 1889.
This copy of "Olive Trees" is by Stan Herd. It was completed in 2015. And it`s also a
landscape, literally. Stan Herd is an earth works artist and what you`re looking at is
his arrangement of plants, soil and mulch, an all natural recreations of the "Olive Trees"
picture.
It was commissioned by the Minneapolis Institute of Art and took six months of hard work to
complete.
Made for a great story before we Van Gogh. It didn`t take much to con-Vincent us to air.
We also plant on something fun and you just never know what`s going to crop up on CNN
STUDENT NEWS or how many puns we`ll cultivate.
I`m Carl Azuz and it`s farm me to go.