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Terrorists Attack Synagogue in Jerusalem; How Dangerous is Terrorism for People in U.S.?; Japan`s Recession Can Affect Global Economy; Coding Seminar as Alternative to College Degree; Hovering Board Invented

Aired November 19, 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: A terrorist attack in the city of Jerusalem. That`s where we start this midweek addition of CNN STUDENT NEWS. Thanks

for watching.

Two Palestinian attackers with a variety of weapons entered a synagogue early Tuesday. They killed four Jewish worshippers before police arrived

and killed the two attackers. One police officer was injured and later died.

This was the deadliest terrorist attack in Jerusalem since 2008. The city is holy to three major world religions: Christianity, Islam and Judaism.

And Jerusalem status is a major point of dispute between Israel and Palestinian Arabs. After the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyuahu called for national unity against the terrorists and against the Palestinian leaders who he says spread lies about Israel.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the attack. But when you see news like this it`s disturbing. Where else could this happen?

Here is some perspective from CNN`s national security correspondent.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I realize we come at you almost every day with a new terrorist threat or an update on an old terrorist threat and I

understand how that could be overwhelming. So, I want to talk to you the way I talk to friends and family about what they should truly be concerned

about and what they shouldn`t worry about so much, what shouldn`t keep them up at night.

Consistently, U.S. intelligence officials and counterterror officials tell me that the two main groups to be worried about are AQAP, this is al Qaeda

in the Arabian Peninsula, a group that`s very skilled and is attempted to get explosive devices onto airplanes. You remember the underwear bomber in

2009. They are still trying and they have a master bomb maker who is very skilled at hiding explosives in things like personal electronic devices.

The other group is the Khorasan group, which we just begin to hear about this year. This is an offshoot from al Qaeda, a number of senior al Qaeda

leaders who are now basing themselves in Syria, and according to U.S. intelligence, plotting attacks on the U.S. that may be in the final stages.

Those are the two main groups and again, like AQAP, their goal is to get explosive devices onto airplanes, possibly bound for the U.S.

We`ve talked a lot about ISIS, and ISIS does potentially pose a threat to the U.S. mainland, because it`s done such a good job of attracting foreign

fighters to Syria and Iraq and the worry is that those foreign fighters will go home some day and make - carry out terror attacks when they go

home, but the best information now is that ISIS is more focused on the fight in Syria and Iraq, so that`s a threat that we may have to face some

day, but that is not acute today.

Now, beyond AQAP and the Khorasan group, I`m told that the most likely terror attacks to happen on the homeland are so called lone wolves attacks,

these are people who are inspired by extremist propaganda and carry out an attack on their own, perhaps with no communication whatsoever with the

group back home, whether it`s a Khorasan group or al Qaeda. It makes them harder to track, but it also limits the kinds of attacks that they could

carry out, how ambitious they can be, how dangerous they can be. Now, together what this gives the intelligence community to face is a terrorist

threat that`s more dispersed, bigger number of groups, more spread out. And therefore more difficult to track, but possibly less ambitions in their

attacks than al Qaeda was with particularly the attacks on 9/11.

To help you sleep at night, I do want to end on a statistic. This is the total number of terror deaths of Americans on U.S. soil going back to 2009.

As you can see, in the single digits except for 2009. That was the attack at Fort Hood in Texas.

And I will show you these numbers: this is a number of deaths from lightning strikes in the U.S., also going back to 2009. Three or four

times as many every year than terror attacks and then here deaths from car accidents, many hundreds or even thousands of times more than terror

attacks.

It`s not to say it`s not a serious threat, terrorism, but statistically, you are very unlikely to be hurt in the terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: See if you can I.D. me. I`m an island nation that stretches about 1500 miles. You`ll find me in the Pacific Ocean east of

the Korean Peninsula. With more than 37 million people my capital is also the world`s most popular city, Tokyo.

I`m Japan, and I have the third largest economy on earth.

AZUZ: That`s why it matters, that Japan`s economy has slipped into a recession. It`s so large that experts say it could slow down the global

economy. The technical definition for a recession has to do with gross domestic product. When a nation`s GDP decreases for two quarters in a row,

it`s in recession. Japan has an incredible amount of national debt. It`s more than twice the size of its economy.

To increase the government`s revenue, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had planned to increase the national sales tax next year, but this week he

delayed those plans because a previous increase in sales tax kept people from spending money. That was another drag on Japan`s economy. Decreasing

wages and aging population, and weak demand for goods and services are also helping keep Japan`s economy from growing.

We are snowbmobiling our way across the American north on today`s roll call. In West Allis, Wisconsin, we are recognizing the wild cats of Frank

Lloyd Wright Intermediate School. Good to see you.

One state west, in a town of Eagan, Minnesota, hello to the panthers. They are watching at Black Hawk Middle School.

And in Billings, the biggest city in Montana, we`ve got the golden bears wrapping things up, shoutout to Billings West High School.

We`ve talked about how four year college degrees aren`t for everyone, and they don`t all pay off. According to salary.com, degrees in psychology,

fine arts and yes, communications, don`t always give you a good return on a college investment. Degrees in tougher fields like chemical engineering

can mean a better job with better pay, but few degrees are cheap, so we are continuing our serious on affording higher education by looking at skills

specific programs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are so excited to present you today our new travel app.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It`s graduation day at Dev Boot Camp, the end of a 19 week program that turned these students into one of the

hottest commodities in the current economy: coders.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And so today, it will be (INAUDIBLE) these ideas that they don`t ...

ROMANS: For so many years it was the four-year degree, but a lot of people are saying, wait, I need something more. General studies, four years isn`t

going to give you an edge in this tech base (INAUDIBLE).

JON STOWE, PRESIDENT DEV BOOTCAMP: If you are going to college to get a job, majority of students graduating from college either wish they attended

a different program .

ROMANS (on camera): Right.

STOWE: Or wished that they had an additional skill set.

ALEX UNG, STUDENT, DEV BOOTCAMP: The traditional four year system, while I really value the social experiences that I have there, didn`t necessarily .

ROMANS: You say social, you didn`t say academic.

UNG: I feel pretty independent (ph) by it. And that was kind of a gap that Dev Bootcamp was here to fill, was to (INAUDIBLE) with the skillset.

The things that we pack into 19 weeks here, things you might learn in like two or three or four years in university.

ROMANS: At $40,000 a year.

UNG: Yeah, $40,000 a year.

ROMANS: You think this is a good value?

UNG: 100 percent. The majority of people graduate with jobs that pay on average like 90K or so, for a $12,000 tuition, I think that`s worth it.

ROMANS (voice over): As student loan debt in America surpasses $1.2 trillion, and millennials account for 40 percent of the nation`s

unemployed, skills specific programs like Dev Bootcamp are becoming popular alternatives and add-ons to higher education.

(on camera): Let`s talk about the investment. You know, it`s an investment of time, it`s an investment of money. And we are talking about

a cohort that has already invested probably a lot of money in an education. How is this different?

COURTENEY ERVIN, INSTRUCTOR, DEV BOOTCAMP: We really focus on outcomes, and we focus on students being able to find careers when they finish this.

It`s very, very clear that when you finish this program, the goal is to be able to be a junior web developer. And we get you to that point very

quickly, and it`s really clear what you should do next, and how you can get there.

UNG: My friends from college, the majority of them are unemployed, we all (INAUDIBLE). I have (INAUDIBLE). I don`t know anyone without any debt,

personally.

KARINA CARMONA, STUDENT, DEV BOOTCAMP: I want to take charge of my own education.

I knew that if I graduate with a CS degree at university, I would not know any web development.

ROMANS: You wanted really just focusing on this.

CARMONA: Yeah. And this is what I want to do. So, why I waste my time? Right now, a degree is kind of like a high school diploma. A portfolio

means a lot more. If I can show an employer I can build this, and I can do this, then I think that`ll, you know, land (ph) me the job.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: OK. A company called Hendo claims it`s invented a hoverboard, a real actual board that hovers while you stand on it. Who better to test

one out than skateboarding legend Tony Hawk? He recently took a hoverboard for a spin, and a spin, and a spin. He`d showed off both at similarities

to and differences from a wheeled skateboard. One big difference is the price. While a traditional board costs around $80 complete, the hoverboard

is 10,000, which could leave your head spinning, but if you are bored of your board, you have more than room in board, and you want a board that

soars over boards and over floors, a board that hovers covers, floors over witched hovers, could leave other boarders flawed with their boards a board

the floor. I`m Carl Azuz. It`s time to air out.

END