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International Military Action May Be Ahead in Syria; How A Trade War Could Affect U.S. Consumers; The Psychographics of Facebook
Aired April 13, 2018 - 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: Roses are red, violets are blue, Fridays are awesome! And I`m Carl Azuz.
We`re happy to have you watching CNN 10 today.
Our show begins with a pair of headlines. The first from Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., where CIA Director Mike Pompeo appeared before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee yesterday. Pompeo is U.S. President Donald Trump`s nominee to be the next secretary of state. If confirmed, he`d be
America`s 70th secretary of state, responsible for advising the president on foreign affairs.
In his opening remarks, Pompeo indicated his priorities would be taking a hard line on Russia and Iran, avoiding past mistakes with North Korea and
rebuilding the U.S. State Department.
But it`s not certain whether the Senate will confirm Pompeo to the State Department job. He needs Senate approval to get it. And one Republican
and some Democrats on the committee he spoke to yesterday are expected to oppose his nomination. We`ll keep you posted on that process.
Next, we`re crossing the Atlantic and Mediterranean to bring you an update on events concerning Syria. The Middle Eastern country is in the midst of
a years-long civil war. Other nations, including Russia, Iran and the U.S. have been involved. And America and its allies look like they`re getting
ready to take some sort of action there.
French President Emmanuel Macron says that he has proof that the Syrian government used a chemical weapon in a recent attack. That`s illegal under
international law.
And earlier this week, President Trump seemed to suggest that military action by the U.S. would be taken soon.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has denied using chemical weapons and says any international force against his country would threaten security and
peace. Russia, an ally of Syria, has called for a U.N. Security Council on Friday to discuss this issue.
From the civil war in Syria, we`re explaining a possible trade war between the U.S. and China -- or is it all over before it could begin?
Earlier this week, Chinese President Xi Jinping said his nation would strengthen intellectual property rights, increase foreign access to China`s
markets and significantly lower tariffs or taxes on imported cars. These are all things that President Trump wants China to do. The American leader
says he`s thankful for the Chinese leader`s words and now, it`s possible that the back-and-forth tariffs between the two nations would come to a
stop.
But what if they don`t? What if actions don`t follow words and the two countries continue ramping up tariffs instead of holding back on them? How
could a potential trade war affect every day Americans?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: People are freaking out about a trade war with China. But why?
Well, the U.S. imports more products from China than any other country in the world, $505 billion worth of goods in 2017, while only sending $130
billion worth of products to China. This creates a gap of $370 billion, a large part of the trade deficit with China.
In the time I`ve been talking, did you notice all the products in the room that are made in China have disappeared? Now, a trade war with China
doesn`t mean we`d stop importing these Chinese goods, but it does go to show just how much we depend on them.
Let`s rewind in case you missed it. For example, this TV. The U.S. imports $146 billion worth of electrical machinery and equipment. The most
of anything we import from China. This includes remotes, laptops and cellphones.
Also, sneakers. We import $1.4 billion worth a year. And these umbrellas, the U.S. imported $113 million worth in 2017, and China happens to be the
world`s largest supplier of umbrellas. And the list goes on.
One thing we export a lot of is playing cards, but the cards stack we print in is from -- you guessed it -- China. There`s no tariff, but we still
spent $120 million importing card stack last year.
So, while these products aren`t going anywhere, they could have some stiff tariffs on them, which means our lives could get a little more expensive.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: Next, we`ve talked a lot about Facebook lately, including how its CEO testified this week on Capitol Hill about a data breach that might have
shared the personal information of 87 million users without their knowledge. This was in violation of Facebook`s rules.
But this story is about the information that companies gather that doesn`t break Facebook`s rules. It`s been said you can tell a lot about people by
the company they keep or the shoes they wear. A group of British researchers said that companies can tell whether people are black or white,
how they vote, whether they`ve used drugs, in some cases if their parents are divorced, and that they can figure all this out just by looking at
Facebook likes.
The study suggests that by clicking a thumps up on a post, users can reveal far more about themselves than many of them imagined.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRRESPONDENT (voice-over): This 2013 study by big data scientist Michal Kosinski and others found you can learn
a lot about someone from how smart they are to how satisfied they are, even if they`re more likely to be outgoing and active or shy and reserved, just
be looking at what they like on Facebook.
Timothy Summers, who was not involved in these studies, is a professor at the University of Maryland`s College of Information Studies.
PROF. TIMOTHY SUMMERS, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: Facebook is a really amazing place to give data and not really think about the data
you`re giving because you`re just sharing it with family and friends, right? But you`re actually sharing it with every company that utilizes
Facebook.
GUPTA: And those companies can predict someone`s personality better than a coworker with just 10 likes, better than a friend or roommate with 70
likes, better than a parent or sibling with 150 likes. Once they know 300 of your likes, big data knows you better than your spouse and it can
accurately pick your political party 85 percent of the time. After that, it`s all about tweaking your thinking.
(on camera): So you`re saying you could take somebody who may have a had a certain worldview --
SUMMERS: Yes.
GUPTA: -- and a certain personality type, and actually persuade them --
SUMMERS: Yes.
GUPTA: -- to think differently about a candidate or an issue.
SUMMERS: Absolutely, absolutely. With the right imagery and the right content, context, and nuance, and with the right social media campaign and
Internet marketing campaign you can get just about anyone to click on just about anything.
GUPTA (voice-over): And once they click, they`re subjected to a micro- targeted whisper campaign -- a digital version of the Old Town Square.
SUMMERS: And then they say, huh, this is interesting. Tell me more about this, and then you show them some more. And the more and more they`re
willing to go down that rabbit hole, the more and more influenced they are.
GUPTA (on camera): Are there some people who are just going to be more persuadable if you will than others?
SUMMERS: Absolutely, and that`s what -- that`s where the psychographics comes in.
GUPTA (voice-over): Psychographics -- it`s the study and classification of people according to their attitudes, aspirations, and other psychological
criteria.
The number one way to profile someone is to figure out how they score on the so-called big five personality traits -- openness, conscientiousness,
extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism -- OCEAN.
(on camera): They collect this data on me and they all right, now we know enough about Sanjay to say this is who is and this is how we can influence
him. Is it so insidious that I don`t even recognize that it`s happening?
SUMMERS: You don`t even realize it`s happening.
GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: Our last story today involves a gorilla, so we can`t technically call this a case of monkey see, monkey do. Gorillas are apes. But if
imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, this trainer at Busch Gardens in Florida should feel pretty good. Rachel Hale regularly works
with gorillas and chimps and the 12-year-old ape named Bolingo loves to play copycat. The park says working with animals like this builds positive
relationships with them.
So, maybe you can`t say the animal is monkeying around, but could you say he goes bananas for it? The crowd sure does. It`s great to see gorillas
in the midst of trainers. You`ve got to be impressed with his anthropoise. It`s not every day you chimpanzee something that proves so well, gorillas
are the genus of primates.
I`m Carl Azuz. CNN 10 hopes you have a gorilla good weekend.
END
