CNN Student News - October 20, 2017

cnn 10

Venturing Inside the War-Torn City of Raqqa; October 19, 1987: Black Monday; Flying Insects Populations in Germany

Aired October 20, 2017 - 04:00 ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CARL AZUZ, cnn 10 ANCHOR: Our Friday just got even better because you are watching. Thank you. I`m Carl Azuz. This is cnn 10.

History, economics, biology and animal behavior are all featured today.

We`re starting our international coverage in the war-torn Middle Eastern nation of Syria. Until this week, the city of Raqqa -- which was what the ISIS terrorist group saw as their capital -- they`ve been in complete control of Raqqa since early 2014. The terrorists wanted their own country based on their severe interpretation of Islam and they ruled Raqqa with brutality. They murdered someone publicly for smoking a cigarette.

With support from the U.S. military, the Syrian Democratic Forces launched a battle to regain control of Raqqa in June. They announced ISIS`s defeat earlier this week. They expect Raqqa to be fully liberated any day now.

But what`s left? The international aid group Save the Children says tens of thousands of people who fled Raqqa still need aid and many of those who might try to find their homes will see only rubble and burned, hollowed out buildings.

Who actually controls the city? Who would pay to start rebuilding it? And how it could all be rebuilt are the questions that hang in the air over the city.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, cnn SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The destruction, it`s so vast, it`s so widespread, it`s hard to even begin to imagine just how terrifying this must have been, especially for the civilians that ISIS was continuing to hold hostage until the very last minute. And you can`t even see traces of the life that was amid the rubble. That is just how devastated this city has become and we`re still under very strict orders not to veer off the main roads, not to go down any of the alleyways because of ongoing concerns that ISIS still may have explosives buried throughout the rubble.

Commanders that we have spoken to have described this as being multilevel battlefield. There is the fighting that took place above ground. And then there is the fighting that took place underground, with the vast intricate tunnel system that ISIS had dug out.

This is one of the main squares in Raqqa where ISIS`s horrors, its brutal reign were on regular display. What we have here now can really only be described as something of a surreal scene. Syrian Democratic Forces fighters took over this part of the city a few days ago.

Now, we have the women`s unit that is here, part of a celebration that is going to be starting fairly shortly. They are part of the Syrian Democratic Forces. And we have been talking to some of the top leadership within the SDF and they are telling us that the enormous challenge of rebuilding the city, of course, is among their top priorities, and that, of course, is going to be incredibly difficult.

But what they say is even more crucial, even more imperative at this stage, is trying to rebuild the fabric of society and it`s only if they can succeed at that will they be able to ensure that an entity like ISIS never reemerges in a city like Raqqa again and that the people of this city and so many others never have to go through this again.

Arwa Damon, cnn, Raqqa, Syria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ (voice-over): Ten-second trivia:

Which of these events took place on October 19th, 1987?

U.S. stock market crashed, Margaret Thatcher won a third term, Hands Across America was held, or Mikhail Gorbachev took power?

October 19th, 1987, was the worst single day in U.S. stock market history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: Yesterday, we explained the U.S. stock market`s record high. Ironically, it came on the 30th anniversary of its most dramatic one-day crash ever. I keep saying one-day crash because what happened in 1929 was spread out over a longer period of time and contributed to the worldwide Great Depression that lasted for years.

Compared to that, the 1987 drop was short-lived. Stocks recovered within months There was no prolonged recession or depression. But especially to the investors who lived it, it was a day of near-hysteria, one from which the lessons learned include a plan intended to prevent it from ever happening again.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, cnn CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: October 19th, 1987, a day that would come to be known as Black Monday. The Dow plunged 22.6 percent. It had never happened before. It`s still the biggest one day percentage loss of all time.

That means bigger than the 1929 stock market crash, or when trading reopened after the September 11th attacks or during the financial crisis that almost wipe out the global economy.

Here`s how cnn reported Black Monday at the time.

LOU DOBBS, cnn HOST, MONEYLINE: Good evening. The stock market today crashed. The Dow Jones Industrials, every other major index, breaking records in its plummet downward.

ROMANS: Yes, it was a crash pure and simple. And it was blamed on a number of factors, heightened hostilities in the Persian Gulf, fear of higher interest rates, a five-year bull market without a significant correction at all, and program trading. But really, the word you heard over and over again --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a panic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People were panicking.

REPORTER: This nosedive was pure investor panic.

DOBBS: Well, panic is the only way to describe what happened on Wall Street today.

ROMANS: Panic, that`s a big part of what separates a crash from just a really bad day on Wall Street. When emotion takes over, when trading is no longer calm or orderly, that`s when Black Mondays are born.

So, could it happen again?

A panic is always theoretically possible, but a 22 percent decline on the Dow, that`s less likely, because of circuit breakers first implemented after the Black Monday freefall. Circuit breakers kick in to halt trading when stocks dive too far too fast. Think of it as a trading timeout, designed to give investors a chance to calm down. In other words, to interrupt a panic, and maybe to prevent another Black Monday.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: A new study has some alarming news about flying insects. Apparently, they`re dramatically decreasing in number. We`re not talking about just one species here. Butterflies, moths, bees, they all factor in.

What researchers did was study the weight of the insects that were caught in special nets that had been set up throughout Germany. Over a period of 27 years, the weight of the captured flying insects declined by more than 75 percent. There were fewer and fewer of them in the traps.

Why? It`s completely unknown.

Scientists say it didn`t matter what the insects` habitats were, what was being done with the land, what was happening with the weather. They just mysteriously decrease in number. The results were published in the journal PLOS ONE.

And while they look only at traps in Germany, scientists say there`s reason to believe this is happening everywhere. They say if this is occurring in protective areas, the problem could be worse in other places.

Insects make up about 70 percent of all the animals on earth. They`re crucial for everything, from pollination to the food chain. Experts hope this decline is easily reversible.

(MUSIC)

AZUZ: Paddleboard chicken.

Do I need to keep talking?

OK. This is Loretta. She`s a chicken on a paddleboard. Her owner in the Florida Keys says Loretta follows around places, so she thought it`d be natural to take her paddleboarding.

Chickens can float if necessary. They can also fly short distances if necessary. Paddleboarding is not something they do naturally.

But Loretta is not chicken. Well, she is, but she`s not afraid to cross the road to get into a paddleboard. Some birds might think this is a fowl idea. Others can be trained to do it if you`re clucky. And they`d probably prefer the paddleboard over the cutting board.

I`m Carl Azuz and while chickens may hate Fridays, we think they`re awesome!

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