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Japan Holds Elections and Braces for a Typhoon; U.S. Leaders and Music Stars Team Up to Help Hurricane Victims; A Look at Some Wildfire Science

Aired October 23, 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: Hey, I`m Carl Azuz, explaining world news for CNN 10. Welcome to our first show of the week.

There`s a lot going on right now in the Asian island country of Japan. The nation held snap or early elections yesterday. They were originally

scheduled for next year.

But Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called for them to be held now because he was doing well again in opinion polls. His numbers had dropped

as the government grappled with a fair of corruption scandals linked to the prime minister, though he`s repeatedly denied being involved.

But they ticked back up again recently and analysts say Prime Minister Abe wanted to take advantage of that and to get more support for his stance

against North Korea. That nation has fired two ballistic missiles over Japan recently.

And it`s not the only challenge Japan is facing. Typhoon Lan was bearing down on the country last night. It was expected to make landfall along

Japan`s southern coast. Its wind speeds were 134 miles per hour on Sunday, making the typhoon the equivalent of a powerful category 4 hurricane.

And though Typhoon Lan was weakening as it approached Japan, it was so large that the clouds around it extended farther than the borders of the

whole country. Dangerous winds, flooding, mudslides and damage in the Japanese capital of Tokyo were all possible.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

Which living, former U.S. president is the oldest?

George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton?

George H.W. Bush was the born more than three months before Jimmy Carter, making him the oldest living U.S. president, even though his term was later

than Carter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: They were both born in 1924, which means that at a weekend concert to benefit people in need, where all living U.S. presidents made an

appearance, there were two American leaders who are 93 years old.

Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter were joined in person by George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. And current President

Donald Trump appeared in a video message to concertgoers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: Heartbreaking as the tragedies that took place here in Texas and in Florida, in Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin

Islands have been, what we`ve also seen is the spirit of America at its best.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As a nation, we mourn for those who died, and we pray for those who lost their homes or their

livelihoods. In the aftermath of these terrible storms, the American people have done what we do best, we came together, we helped one another,

and through it all, we remained resilient.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: You heard them say the tragedies and these storms -- the event was named Deep from the Heart: The One American Appeal. And its goal was to

raise money and assistance for the victims Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. Stars like Lee Greenwood, Yolanda Adams and Lady Gaga were there.

And as of Saturday night, when the concert was held at Texas A&M University, the charity effort had raised $31 million for more than 80,000

donors.

Where will the money go? To organizations in Florida, Texas, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

What are the needs like? Here`s a look at the line of people that formed last week in Texas. They were waiting for food assistance. Hurricane

Harvey struck that state on August 25th. Here are some of the thousands who waited in a similar line on Saturday, also seeking food assistance,

also victims of a hurricane, that one named Irma, which made landfall in Florida on September 10th. And on the U.S. commonwealth of Puerto Rico,

Hurricane Maria hit on September 20th, and knocked out electricity to the whole island.

More than four weeks later, 21 percent of Puerto Rico`s power has been restored. That means 3 million people there still don`t have it, and about

a third of Puerto Ricans don`t have safe drinking water yet.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This school yard should be bustling with activity at the height of fall semester. Not today, not

since Hurricane Maria threatened and later devastated Puerto Rico. The island`s other 1,100 public schools and the doors to this high school have

been closed since September 18th. Today, the only signs of life are on the other end of the campus.

Room 204 serves as Margarita Fuentes` temporary home.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

SANDOVAL: This 52-year-old grandmother of 11 tells me, for one moment to another, she lost her house and everything in it.

Her grandson Ezekiel led us up the mountainside to show us what`s left of the family`s homes. There isn`t much else you can do these days. Last

most of the students on this island, a return to class may provide a welcome escape from reality.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

SANDOVAL: He says the first thing he`ll do when he gets back to class is hug his friends. He doesn`t know when that would be.

As long as displaced families like his are using schools as shelters, classes can`t resume.

The Department of Education announced Friday that some schools on the island would reopen on Tuesday.

But the teachers at this school say that won`t happen here.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

SANDOVAL: "We have a lot of work to do," says Roxanna Miranda (ph), a drama teacher, anxious to welcome her high schoolers back to class.

While there`s optimist, there`s no real timeline for when the students will walk down the halls again. Even if displaced families are resettled, there

are still plenty of obstacles.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

SANDOVAL: Classrooms in disrepair, roads are nearly impassable because of the mudslides, and there`s no running water in town, leaving families to

struggle to survive.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

SANDOVAL: Margarita says she is staying strong and wants to see her grandchildren back in a classroom, just not this one.

Polo Sandoval, CNN, Corozal, Puerto Rico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: Reporting on California`s wildfires, we told you how they have been the deadliest in the state`s recorded history. They now hold the record

for being the most destructive. Two hundred forty-five thousand acres have burned. That`s a total space larger than the area of San Diego,

California, Memphis, Tennessee, or New York City. Eighty-four hundred buildings have been destroyed, 42 lives have been lost, according to Cal

Fire, 10,000 firefighters are still involved in the fight.

They`ve made progress containing many of the blazes, that doesn`t mean they`re out. It means they`ve been surrounded by fire breaks. The threat

to the state remains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: More than a dozen wildfires continue to burn across areas of California, the majority of them in the northern

half of the state. The key thing to note is that it`s been burning in the northern half of the state for quite some time. In fact, when you take a

look at the top 20 most destructive wildfires in California`s history, four them have been in just this past month, and several of them are still

burning across areas of Northern California.

But the focus moving forward actually shifts from Northern California to southern California, where we start to expect those Santa Ana winds to

begin to increase that fire threat. So, you`ll notice across areas of Southern California, we have both elevated and critical fire threats for at

least the next several days. This high pressures that has over areas of the southeast is what`s going to help push that very hot, dry air over the

Santa Ana Mountains and into some of those valley locations, including the city of Los Angeles.

Because of that, you`re going to be experiencing those strong winds but also incredibly hot temperatures. We have excessive heat warnings out for

much of this area, an excessive heat watches just a little bit further to the north of Los Angeles not just for one day, but for multiple days.

Take a look at some of these temperatures: Los Angeles, for example, 78 degrees is the average high temperature, will be in the 90s today and

triple digit for both Monday and Tuesday. Both of which, by the way, could potentially end up being record highs for that city.

And they`re not alone but Los Angeles becomes the bigger story because of the big event that is taking place on Tuesday -- the start of the World

Series. Here`s the thing, the forecast for Tuesday shows a high of 100 degrees. If we end up getting that warm, this could end up being the

hottest game in World Series history.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: Despite winning a public poll last year, the name Boaty McBoatface was not applied to a British research ship. Officials used that for one of

its submersibles instead.

But a Swedish transportation company honored its public`s wishes when they voted to name this Trainy McTrainface. Officials even put a sweet face on

it to match its sweet new name. They say Trainy McTrainface got 49 percent of the public vote, the biggest slice of the piece.

It`s a good thing that vote didn`t go off the rails y`all. Many fans of Boaty McBoatface were sunk. So, when some took rolling stock of the

Swedish vote, got on track on locomotivated to train their efforts on cargoing the distance, the result was a choo-choo-in to station Trainy

McTrainface in the railyard.

I`m Carl Azuz.

END