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Indian Mission to the Moon; Typhoons in Asia; Destruction; Hurricane Destruction in the Bahamas; Push for Influence in the Balkans
Aired September 10, 2019 - 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: Hey, thanks for making CNN 10 part of your Tuesday. I`m Carl Azuz delivering your objective explanation of world
events and today that includes news concerning India, Japan and Serbia, first to the moon. Things have not gone as planned in a recent mission by
India to make a soft landing on the lunar surface. A soft landing means a spacecraft has a slow, controlled descent and spacecraft from only three
countries the United States, China and the former Soviet Union have ever done this. India`s attempt to become the fourth country in that club
probably ended in failure over the weekend. We say probably because scientists aren`t sure yet what happened. There are three components to
its mission. An orbiter to circle the moon, a lander to touch down on it and a rover attached to the lander.
On Saturday, the lander was descending towards the moons surface. It was a little more than a mile above it when contact was lost. Scientists don`t
know yet how hard it hit the moon, how bad the damage might be or whether the instruments aboard can still get some work done. They have located it
but they`re still trying to get a signal from it. Even if it`s destroyed though, the mission isn`t a total loss. The orbiter is still doing its job
circling the moon. Its mission is to map the moon`s surface and to study its atmosphere. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in the mission
control room when contact with the lander was lost. He said in life there are ups and downs but that India is still proud of its scientists and their
hard work.
Back in the Western Hemisphere, an American aide official says it looks like nuclear bombs were dropped on parts of the Bahamas. It`s been more
than a week since Hurricane Dorian, then a Category 5 storm made landfall there and the fact that it moved so slowly over the Bahamas northern
islands only worsened its effects. While 45 people have been confirmed dead, officials expect the number will rise drastically as search and
rescue officials make their way through the wreckage. The U.S. Agency for International Development which gives money and assistance to people in
need says it plans to contribute almost $3 million to the relief effort in the Bahamas. Entire neighborhoods there have been lost.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To get to the places still cut off by Hurricane Dorian, we have to go by boat. We`ve been traveling now for about two hours by
boat. It`s the only way to get here. This is our destination, the eastern most end of Grand Bahama Island. We know that it got hit really hard but
not much else. The road is still closed here and we have not heard how the people here are doing. We really don`t know what we`re going to find here.
We head from Freeport to McLean`s Town. The last settlement on the eastern tip of Grand Bahama. Dorian filled in the channel and scattered cars
throughout the small harbor. We have to navigate around the submerged vehicles.
Now we`re going over a car right now. It`s a car underwater there. McLean`s looks like a war zone and there are fatalities. McLean`s have
been wiped off the map. It`s difficult to conceive the force that could cause this kind of damage. It`s just otherworldly to think the winds and
the water could bury so much of this town under broken trees, broken houses and we really don`t know what is underneath all of this rubble. It will
probably take weeks or longer to dig out and find out what is buried here. All around us is the eerie quiet. It is the sound of a town that has died.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: But the Bahamas isn`t the only place dealing with the effects of a severe storm. Across the Pacific, Japan has just weathered a powerful
typhoon named Faxai. It made landfall on the mainland Monday with wind gusts as high as 120 miles per hour and it passed over the Japanese of
Tokyo. Electricity went out for almost a million households and more than 100 flights were cancelled which stranded 6,800 passengers at one of
Tokyo`s two international airports. Highways were closed. Rail lines were shut down. Ships were forced to stay in port. So the typhoon temporarily
paralyzed transportation and the Japan meteorological agency had warned residents to stay inside anyway. This happened five days after a separate
hit North and South Korea. Typhoon Lingling brought high winds and heavy rains to the region, damaging homes, farms and thousands of buildings.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Typhoons are hurricanes are cyclones. They are the same thing just in different oceans. A lot like a hotcake is a flapjack is
a pancake is a short stack. If you are west of the date line, so west of Hawaii, north of the equator you are a typhoon. If you are in the Atlantic
or Pacific around America, you are a hurricane. And if you are around the Indian Ocean or the Southern Hemisphere you`re a cyclone. So it`s not out
of the question for a hurricane to become a typhoon if it moves over the dateline. In fact after crossing the international date line, Hurricane
Genevieve turned into Typhoon Genevieve a few years ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. Belgrade is the capital of what land locked European country? Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania or Serbia. To get to
Belgrade you have to travel to Serbia, a nation a little smaller than the U.S. state of South Carolina.
As the crow flies, Belgrade is almost the exact same distance from Beijing, China as it is from Washington, D.C. Belgrade`s a little over 4,600 miles
from each capital. Yet the small European country of Serbia has become significant to both east and west with China and America wrestling to have
influence there. According to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, China is Serbia`s third largest import partner behind Germany and Italy which are
much closer. And while Serbia`s government type is a parliamentary republic, a form of democracy, it`s a communist state that many Serbians
see as their nation`s good friend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Follow the tracks on the outskirts of Belgrade and you get to Central Europe. Follow the money and you end up somewhere very
different. The new tracks bear the markings of China railways, one of the major Chinese projects in Serbia moving the Balkan country from its
traditional allies in the west to the "Red Dragon" in the Far East. This steel mill was once owned by U.S. Steel, when it couldn`t make money the
Americans sold it to the Serbian government for one dollar until the Chinese stepped in. Retired construction worker Bolisva Balinkovich (ph)
says the move saved his hometown.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE TRANSLATED: People do see the Chinese here as an (inaudible). We would like them to stay here. If they leave, this would
mean disaster for many of us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: China bought the plant for a premium of $51 million, then poured more money into it. In villages here that rely on the steel
mill for employment, it is China that looks like the savior. It builds this perception that it`s Beijing to the rescue and it grows Serbia`s
reliance on a different super power. It`s not just infrastructure. Chinese police will soon start patrolling in Serbia. (inaudible) a rise in
Chinese tourism. Telecom firm Huawei is installing surveillance cameras in the capital of Belgrade and there are plans for Huawei to build a 5G
network here despite U.S. security concerns about the Chinese tech giant. All of it is a red flag to America.
KYLE SCOTT, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO SERBIA: We`re trying to support them to move in one direction. They should be careful about where they`re going.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kyle Scott it the U.S. Ambassador to Serbia, part of an effort to bring the two countries closer. Last month, the White House
hosted the Serbian foreign minister in Washington who then urged Serbs in America to support President Donald Trump. A door of friendship is open
but China is coming in bringing money and loans. For Serbia, which didn`t respond to our request for comment the new attention means a boost to the
economy, much needed infrastructure projects and a powerful friend coming in to the region.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: It`s a bird. It`s a plane. It`s a motor home? It`s a shed. And if you think that sounds like no ordinary shed, you`re right. This garden
storage unit on four wheels is powered by a 4.2 liter V-8 and it`s capable of going faster than 80 miles per hour. So why would someone build this
and then put 34,000 miles on it. Well it did set a Guinness World Record for Fastest Garden Shed. So if you need to get your tools fast, we`ll
barrel through traffic or test the limits of "spade". Don`t throw in the "trowel". Hop in the speed "shed" and "rake" in a record for "hosepower"
while leaving your competition in "shear" defeat at a dusty fork in the road. I`m Carl Azuz, "planting" and "pruning" puns on CNN 10.
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