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Russian Presidential Election 2024; SpaceX Launches Starship Rocket On Third Test Flight; Two Influential Women Figures Were Recognized During Women`s History Month. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired March 15, 2024 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: What`s up, sunshine? It`s time to shine. Happy Friday, Friyay.
Let`s finish this week strong with a little luck from the Irish on our side as we head into St. Paddy`s Day weekend.
Let`s begin in Russia. That`s where presidential elections are taking place this weekend. It`s the first Russian presidential election to take place
over the course of three days. Voting has also been organized in four Ukrainian regions that Russia occupied over the course of its ongoing war.
President Vladimir Putin, who`s essentially been in power for the entirety of the 21st Century there, is the clear frontrunner. All the candidates in
this election running opposite Putin are reliably pro-Kremlin, meaning they don`t challenge the policies of the current government and don`t have
popular support. None of them oppose the war in Ukraine.
Two independent candidates who openly did, Yekaterina Duntsova and Boris Nadezhdin, were barred from running by the Central Election Commission,
which controls which candidates can participate in elections.
Putin`s approval rating is now at over 80%, according to Levada Center, a nongovernmental polling organization. Their poll also found that three
quarters of Russians somewhat support the war in Ukraine, but more than half would prefer peace negotiations. About half of the respondents follow
the Ukrainian events.
CNN`s Matthew Chance is in Moscow to cover the elections and will break down the context and the most likely outcome of this vote.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, the outcome of Russia`s election is already pretty clear. Opposition to Vladimir Putin
has been silenced. His biggest critic, Alexei Navalny, was buried earlier this month after dying suddenly in an Arctic penal colony amid wide-scale
repressions, even mourners laying flowers at his memorial, hundreds of them were dragged away by the police.
Earlier this week, Navalny`s Chief of Staff in exile was attacked with a hammer outside his home. Well, this Russian election is also, of course,
taking place against the backdrop of a brutal war in Ukraine, with huge casualties on both sides.
Russia has been gaining the upper hand amid Ukrainian shortages of weapons and ammunition, but recent dates have seen Ukraine step up drone attacks
inside Russia, hitting Russian oil facilities in a bid to cause economic damage.
Ukraine-based paramilitary groups opposed to the Kremlin have also been staging dramatic cross-border raids to try and make sure that as Russia`s
elections get underway, ordinary Russians feel the impact of the Kremlin`s Ukraine war.
(On camera): Do you think there`s anybody left in this country who is able to challenge Vladimir Putin?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There`s always people who -- who are not support Vladimir Putin. And even Alexei Navalny now is dead, there`s always hope.
And I believe that if we don`t have it now, but someday maybe.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Ten second trivia, the first privately funded rocket to launch into space was in which year?
1969, 1977, `82 or `99?
Let`s take it back to the 80s, because on September 9th, 1982, the commercial space age began with the launch of Conestoga 1. It was privately
funded by a small Houston-based company called Space Services, Inc. of America.
On Thursday morning, SpaceX launched the most powerful rocket in the world. It`s called Starship.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: Hear that rocket roar as the company`s third attempted launch in about a year was considered a success for the company, even though they
lost communication with the craft before it crashed back to Earth. That`s because the mission reached several milestones, including making it further
into this test flight than ever before.
The first attempted launch of Starship last April ended in a midair explosion, and a second attempt in November started promisingly, but ended
prematurely with an explosion and a loss of signal.
As these tests continue, the goal of Starship is to assist NASA`s Artemis program, where it hopes to land U.S. astronauts on the moon as early as
September of 2026. SpaceX also believes Starship can be an integral part in the company`s aspirations to eventually bring humans to Mars.
During the month of March, Women`s History Month, we are highlighting seminal women who`ve transformed the world in profound ways, and today we
want to recognize environmental activist Wangari Maathai.
She was the first woman from Africa to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She dedicated her life to advocating for the protection of the environment and
empowering Africa`s most impoverished people.
Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in Kenya, which helped plant more than 30 million trees there, an effort that inspired the United Nations to
start its own campaign planting about 11 billion trees worldwide.
Maathai`s tree planting efforts weren`t just about protecting the environment, they also provided locals, especially women, with the ability
to earn money by selling seeds and access to resources for cooking and clean water.
Next, we want to recognize Lise Meitner. Her knowledge in physics changed the world. Meitner and her colleagues learned that splitting atoms releases
large amounts of energy, and she was the first person to describe and name the process of nuclear fission in a scientific paper. Though, she first
worked as a physics professor in Germany, she had to flee from the Nazi regime there because of her Jewish ancestry.
Later, she was asked to work on the Manhattan Project, which was a program during World War II to help develop the first nuclear weapons. But Meitner
refused to take part on any collaboration of this program and stated, "I will have nothing to do with a bomb."
Today, the scientific community continues to acknowledge her brilliance by naming multiple prestigious physics awards after her, and guess what?
There`s even a chemical element named after her, Meitnerium.
For today`s story getting a 10 out of 10, it`s been almost a week since we pushed our clocks ahead an hour, lost an hour of sleep, so are you still
feeling a little tired with this time change? I am. And there`s also this groggy doggie who`s feeling our pain. If we`re all feeling not caught up on
our sleep, the Internet sensation struggled to wake up and start his shift at work. He looks over sheep at a farm in Virginia. Our Jeanne Moos has
more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Donuts is his name and his claim to fame.
NATASHA SIMS, OWNER, WOOLLYSHIRE FARM: Oh, another rough night?
MOOS: Is that he`s a groggy doggie.
SIMS: Are you making your trip back from outer space right now?
MOOS: With millions of fans who relate to his inability to wake up.
SIMS: That night shift got you down, boy.
(On camera): He`s really resonated with folks on the night shift and the folks who are not morning people.
MOOS: This seven-year-old Great Pyrenees mix works the night shift in WoollyShire Farm in Virginia, where he`s the guardian to 15 sheep. But
nothing --
SIMS: Let me get you a chest rub this morning.
MOOS: Not chest rubs, not stretches.
SIMS: A big stretch.
MOOS: Nothing keeps Donuts from wanting to go back to sleep.
SIMS: Wakey, wakey.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Time to make the doughnuts.
MOOS: If Donuts had an alarm clock, he`d be pressing the snooze function all the time.
SIMS: Absolutely. Seem to come back in five minutes?
I brought you some casserole for your breakfast.
MOOS: Not even food works. Even this treat.
SIMS: A doughnut for Donuts.
MOOS: Sat in his mouth forever before he finally chowed down.
Owner Natasha Sims captioned this video of Donuts slowly walking. Rare footage of Donuts awake. His bright-eyed co-worker britches.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s ready to go.
MOOS: Makes Donuts look like a lump of dough.
SIMS: You need some more time?
Hey buddy, it`s time to get up for breakfast.
MOOS: Who needs breakfast when you can hit the hay, literally?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: All right, let`s wake up, up, up. Happy Friday. Keep in touch over the weekend. I`m @coywire on socials. We`re at CNN10 on YouTube.
Before we go, let`s give a shout out to the Knights at Andrew Jackson Middle School in Cross Lanes, West Virginia. Rise up.
And this shout out goes to Chester Area School in Chester, South Dakota. To all the Flyers out there, rise up. Make it an awesome weekend. Be the light
that someone needs. Remember, you are more powerful than you know.
I`m Coy Wire. This is CNN 10. It`s been a blessing to spend this week with you.
END
