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Obama Addressed the U.N. General Assembly; Ebola Spreading in West Africa; MIT Engineering Team Works on Prosthetic Limbs; Blowing Shofar at Jewish New Year
Aired September 25, 2014 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: It`s great to have you watching CNN STUDENT NEWS. My name is Carl Azuz, a commercial-free coverage this Thursday starts in
New York. Where you find the headquarters of the United Nations. All 193 member countries are invited to the U.N. General Assembly. It`s going on
this week. Its goals include fostering cooperation between nations, making decisions on issues concerning peace and security.
President Obama addressed the assembly yesterday. He focused on several issues. The biggest was terrorism, and the U.S.-led fight against the ISIS
militant group.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Already over 40 nations have offered to join this coalition. Today, I asked the world to join in this
effort. Those who have joined ISIL should leave the battlefield while they can. Those who continue to fight for a hateful cause will find they are
increasingly alone. For we will not succumb to threats and we will demonstrate that the future belongs to those who build, not those who
destroy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: The president also repeated that the U.S. would not put boots on the ground, meaning U.S. troops would not be involved in direct fighting.
That`s something that several officials say may be needed to defeat ISIS terrorists.
President Obama also asked for international help in fighting the Ebola virus. An outbreak of the fever has ravaged West Africa this year. It has
a very high death rate, and it`s killed thousands so far.
The U.S. is sending 3,000 troops plus medical and health workers to Liberia. That`s the hardest hit country. And the United Nations has
passed a resolution that asks every member country to speed up its response to Ebola.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it`s scary. Yes, it`s terrifying. Of course, it`s terrifying. But what are you going to do?
Women, men, children are dying, families are being devastated. And in any other conflict situation, people take that risk and they go in.
Somali during the famine, you couldn`t move for the international community, and you get to Monrovia, and you just feel the sense of
loneliness and isolation and the fact that people just aren`t on the ground.
It was very different from what I normally do where you know that there`s a threat, and you know that you either going towards a threat or away from a
threat. And that threat is very apparent.
The smell of bleach, as you come in to the arrival terminal, because all over are these buckets with diluted bleach for people to wash their hands
in.
And very quickly you kind of start to - to get used to that reality that you are not shaking anyone`s hands. You are keeping a distance, even in
the queue people were keeping a distance from each other so that you didn`t accidentally tough, and that those bleach buckets were going to be your
best friends.
The health workers definitely had a huge impact on us. Just the fact that they had lost so many colleagues and friends and kept going out there. And
we are learning on the job. I mean it`s not the job you want to learn on. The bravery and just the real - the sheer just determination that it takes
to get up, get out of bed, and know that your job every day is to suit up and risk your life in the hope that - you are going to beat this.
The heartbreaking thing is that this is a region that was starting to pull itself back up after years and years of really devastating conflict. What
has been most disheartening is waiting for that response from the international community, and as a journalist, you hope that your job is to
show the world, and then the world responds.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: Thank you for the thousands of "Roll Call" requests we got in yesterday`s transcript at cnnstudentnews.com.
One of them came from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Hello to everyone watching at the American International School.
In Rathdrum, Idaho, the Hawks are on our roll, they are watching at Lakeland Jr. High. In Rossville, Georgia, is Panther nation. Good to see
you at Ridgeland High School.
A major Jewish holiday is under way. It`s called Rosh Hashanah. It began last night and it ends tomorrow night. Its name means "head of the year,"
and that`s what it celebrates, the Jewish New Year. Rosh Hashanah is also known as a day of remembrance. It`s when Jews mark the birthday of the
world. This year, the Jewish calendar enters the year 5775. People who celebrate usually go to synagogue services at this time, they take time off
from work, and what tradition associated with Rosh Hashanah is the blowing of the Shofar.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERT WEINGER, SHOFAR EXPERT: The shofar is a most prophetic instrument that there is. It`s the instrument that releases symbolically God`s voice.
It`s just a wake up call. We are waking up our spirituality to return to God, to actually - cleanse - cleanse ourselves.
IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This voice grows louder, trumpeting during Jewish New Year Rosh Hashanah. But the first sound that shofar ever makes
is actually quite different.
Eli Robak (ph) grinds away as his father`s father has done before, turning thousands of animal horns into polished shofars.
Robak`s expertise go beyond creating, but just selling and even playing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The popular one is always the regular Ashkenazi Sphoradic (ph) shofar. Using your lips, you close the mouthpiece, it`s
like this ...
If we use a trumpet, it will be easier for you.
LEE: Not as easy as it looks.
And finding the right sounding shofar takes time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m listening for the heart of God. I`m listening for that pure sound that is in complete harmony. There`s something about the
sound of the shofar as it resonates in the blood of a Jewish person.
LEE: An echo through time, as the Jewish calendars enters the year 5775. Ian Lee, CNN, Jerusalem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: Topeka is the capital of Kansas. But it`s gone by other names. One mayor wants to change it to Google to attract technology, another wants to
change Topeka to Topeka 2 I honor of Pokemon. Now, that`s random.
There`s no denying that prosthetic limbs, devices that can substitute for lost arms, knees or feet, they`ve been a tremendous help to many who`ve
needed them. They can be incredibly expensive, a partial foot can cost $14,000 without insurance or compensation. A computerized foot and calf
system, like the one that Hugh Herr invented, as much as 70,000. The benefits ...
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thousands have gained from engineer Hugh Herr`s loss. A leader in 21st century bionics, he also happens to be a
double amputee who lost both his legs in a climbing accident in 1982. His reaction to the accident? He became obsessed with the potential of
prosthetics.
HUGH HERR: A human being can never be broken. Technology is broken.
CRANE: Determined to engineer artificial limbs, that could outperform real ones, he went on to build himself a pair of highly functional legs that
would once again propel him up a mountain and later prove mobility to thousands.
Today, Herr`s team at MIT`s media lab are hard at work at a robotic exoskeleton. That can one day change the way we all walk.
They`ve designed fiber glass struts with small motors that contract and release in tune with the person`s natural gate. The device detects when a
step is being taken, and then redistributes weight to make the gate more efficient.
The MIT group found that the boots took on around 30 percent of the heavy load, drastically reducing the toll it took on a subject. That means an
instant assist for anybody that has trouble walking.
Picture a soldier carrying heavy gear in the field. An injured athlete in recovery, or an elderly person that just needs a little help. The
implications are huge.
HERR: Basic levels of physiological function should be a part of our human rights. Every person should have the right to live life without
disability, if they so choose.
Cooler weather conjures cravings concerning costumes, candy corn coverings. But in this organic pumpkin patch, you`ll find something unnatural. A
mold. Not a fungus, but a mold that allows a California farmer to shape pumpkin faces without ever touching a carving knife. It`s pumpkinstein,
yo. The farmer gets about $75 for each of this wholesale. But he says it costs him hundreds of thousands of dollars to figure out the right mold and
pumpkins to use.
Whether or not you think the idea fits the mold, it certainly breaks the mold. It really grows on you and as longs as he fits it right and doesn`t
have to patch things up he`s gourd to go. We have gourd to go. More news and puns are planted in to tomorrow show.
END
