CNN Student News 201804 05
CARL
AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Your objective explanation of world news starts right now.
This is CNN 10 and I`m Carl Azuz. I`ll be your host for these
10
minutes.
U.S.
President Donald Trump is talking about withdrawing American troops from the
war-torn Middle Eastern nation of Syria. The Pentagon has said there are around
2,000 U.S. troops there. Their main mission has been to fight the ISIS
terrorist group, which used to control a large amount of territory in Syria.
But
according to "The New York Times", a coalition of military forces led
by the U.S. has taken back 97 percent of the areas that ISIS once held.
And
U.S. President Donald Trump recently said that the American troops there should
leave soon. He`s told his advisers to start planning to bring them home, but a
date for a U.S. withdrawal hasn`t been set. There`s still some ISIS militants
in Syria, and President Trump`s military advisors say the U.S. troops who are
there will need to stay for the immediate future.
Some
analysts say that if the American forces leave too soon, the country will fall
under the influence of Iran and Russia who`ve supported Syria`s current
government.
The
White House says it`s still committed to getting rid of whatever ISIS pockets
remain first.
As
far as the future of the war-torn country goes, President Trump says the cost
of stabilizing Syria will have to be covered by other countries in the region.
We
talked a lot recently about a destructive battle between Syrian government forces
and a rebel group in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
That
fight looks like it`s winding down.
(BEGIN
VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK
PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We`re at the final entry
checkpoint to Douma, which is the last rebel enclave on the eastern outskirts
of Damascus. Now, what we`ve been seeing here is several buses with what we
believe to be rebel fighters exiting this area. Now, most of those fighters in
the past couple of days have been bused to other locations, mostly in the north
of Syria. The groups that we saw we`re not sure which rebel group they were
from and also, we`re not sure where they were being taken.
But
in the past couple of weeks, the rebels have lost a considerable amount of
territory here on the eastern outskirts of Damascus. They used to hold a
gigantic area, but after extremely heavy fighting, tens of thousands of
civilians fled this area and then also thousands of fighters were bused out as
well. Now with the rebels only holding one small enclave, many believe that a
deal would be reached soon for those rebels to go out as well. So far, it`s
unclear when exactly that`s going to happen.
But
there do seem to be people here in Damascus who think it will be very soon. In
fact, we spoke to people who came here to this checkpoint and said that they
had relatives who were kidnapped by the rebels, some of them for years, whom
they hope will come out soon.
Here`s
what one woman said.
I
depend on God, she says. This is my only hope. I will wait here as long as it
takes for my father to come out.
Now,
the deal to try and get the last rebel group here in this part of Damascus
called Jaysh Islam to give up, is being negotiated mostly by the Russians and
it certainly seems as though the government of Syria believes that deal will
happen soon. In fact, there are already dozens of buses waiting here outside of
Douma district ready to take those fighters to the north of Syria, which is
essentially would mean that the rebels would no longer hold any sort of
significant territory in or outside the Syrian capital.
Fred
Pleitgen, CNN, Eastern Ghouta, Syria.
(END
VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ:
From the Middle East, we`re taking you to the European country of France, where
a strike is causing severe disruptions in the nation`s train services. France`s
state-owned rail company says about 87 percent of its high speed trains and 80
percent of its regional rail services were cancelled Tuesday. There were no
trains operating to Switzerland, Spain or Italy.
This
is a rolling strike. Workers plan to walk out two days a time for a total of 18
walkouts before the end of June. They`re protesting changes to the country`s
labor laws that were proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron.
Making
changes was one of his campaign promises. But while many French business
leaders and economists support his plans, many unions oppose them.
France`s
rail company is $56 billion in debt, according to the "Reuters" news
agency. President Macron wants to turn it into a profit-making business. But
employees are concerned that if that happens, they could lose job security,
annual pay raises and the right to early retirement.
And
union bosses say that making France`s railways more competitive could mean
higher ticket prices.
In
previous standoffs between unions and French presidents, the unions have
prevailed.
(BEGIN
VIDEOTAPE)
SUBTITLE:
French rail workers have kicked off a three-month long strike.
JIM
BITTERMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Every time there`s a strike here,
I got the impression that people around the world are saying,
why
don`t the French just stop whining and get on with the work?
Reforming
the economy here closely follows Newton`s first law of motion, inertia. At the
root of it, I think the French are very conservative in the classic sense. They
view change with suspicion at best and hostility at worst.
And
there`s the concept of Droits Acquis, acquired rights. It`s a concept that is
deeply ingrained in French society. It`s the feeling that rights once acquired
should never ever be abandoned.
Despite
appearances to the contrary, French unions by the members are not all that
strong.
SUBTITLE:
Only around 11 percent of French workers are unionized. That`s roughly the same
as the U.S. The difference between France and other countries, though, is that
unionized workers are found in very critical areas, transportation, energy
production and a like. If they decide to go on strike, it can cause a lot of
pain very quickly.
BITTERMANN:
There are dozens of other attitudes which can be changed from the longstanding
mistrust between employers and employees, through the traditional belief that
every gain for the boss is a loss for the workers. In fact, it`s a kind of
thing that rightly or wrongly can leave the impression that France is a
difficult place to do business.
(END
VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN
VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ
(voice-over): Ten-second trivia:
Which
of these sports venues is about 50 meters long?
NBA
basketball court, Olympic swimming pool, NFL football field, or NHL ice hockey
rink?
Of
these options, only the Olympic swimming pool is 50 meters long.
(END
VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ:
And we are diving into one for our next story. It`s part of our ongoing series
of positive athletes. These are student athletes from around the U.S. who`ve
made some extraordinary accomplishments or just having extraordinarily positive
attitude. If that sounds like someone you know, please send in a nomination at
CNN.com/positiveathlete.
A
great example of one is a swimmer from Georgia named McClain Hermes.
(BEGIN
VIDEOTAPE)
MCCLAIN
HERMES, SWIMMER: In the water, you can`t really look at me and tell that I`m
blind. So, it`s nice just to be free and to be able to compete against other
people.
MATT
HERMES, MCCLAIN`S DAD: She`s actually taken kind of what I call a victim
mentality of what someone could be into kind of a victor. She hasn`t let it
stop her.
MCCLAIN
HERMES: I can`t see a lot of my right eye and I can see through like a coffee
stirrer or straw. It`s about this big. They`re little, itty bitty hole in my
left eye.
Tell
me what`s on the 30.
UNIDENTIFIED
FEMALE: Go.
MCCLAIN
HERMES: I was selected as the youngest Team USA athlete to compete at the 2016
Paralympic Games in Rio.
MATT
HERMES: To be able to say, you know what? That little one right there, she`s
ours. Even just thinking about it now, it kind of gives me chills.
MCCLAIN
HERMES: I hope to compete in the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo and medal
there.
MATT
HERMES: I have a lot of pride with McClain and her swimming accomplishments.
I`m just as proud of her with what she`s done with giving back.
MCCLAIN
HERMES: My dad and I decided once we got out of our dark time and our lives
that we wanted to give back to other people and show them the love and support
that we are being given. So, we decided to collect shoes. In December 2016, we
donated over 3,500 pairs of shoes to the Atlanta Mission and that brought our
grand total to over 19,000 pairs of shoes.
What
some might call a disability, I`ve turned it into my ability. So, I`ve taken my
blindness and I turned it into my ability in the pool and my ability in my
community to help others and inspire others.
MATT
HERMES: She doesn`t want her sight back. If you ask her, she would say no, I
don`t want my sight back. You know, maybe someday, but today, she`s good.
(END
VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ:
If you have seasonal allergies, this is almost enough to make your eyes water.
Looks like snow, right? It`s not. It`s pollen. The spores are grains from
flowering plants and there was so much of it recently in part of North Carolina
that it looked like a heavy snowfall when caught on a man`s home security
cameras.
He
posted on Facebook that North Carolina is where you can make pollen men, pollen
angels and have pollen ball fights. If you wonder why so many people are
allergic, that`s one anther.
It`s
not fertilie to say that it`s simply a pollen. There`s more than a grain of
truth to that. We`d say it`s nothing to sneeze at, but spores it is.
And
I`m Carl Achooz for CNN 10.
END
