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Survivors of an Alleged Chemical Attack in Syria Share Their Memories; Researchers Envision a Dream-Recording Machine; A Positive Athlete Remembers His Mother
Aired April 17, 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: This is CNN 10 and I`m Carl Azuz at CNN Center. We`re happy to see you this Tuesday.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons or OPCW is an independent organization. Its goals include getting rid of the chemical
weapons that some countries have made and helping protect people from them. And on the same day that the U.S., the U.K. and France launched airstrikes
against the Syrian government, for its alleged use of the chemical weapons in the town of Douma, investigators from the OPCW arrived in the Syrian
capital and they`ve been waiting to get access to Douma.
The attack on April 7th killed 75 people. The World Health Organization says 500 others were treated with symptoms that a chemical weapons attack
would cause. The United Nations bans the use of chemical weapons of war, but the OPCW says it`s seen more than 390 accusations of chemical weapons
use in Syria since 2014.
Western leaders blamed the Syrian government for using them in Douma. Syria and its ally Russia have strongly denied it. And the OPCW team is
trying to find out what the truth is. The U.S. is considered that Russia might have tampered with evidence at the site of the alleged attack and the
U.K. has accused Russia and Syria of keeping OPCW inspectors from entering Douma.
While they waited hope to get access to the site, CNN`s Arwa Damon recently spoke to survivors of the alleged attack. Their story shows how even those
who live carry the scars of war in their memory.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And there`s definitely something that stinks.
(voice-over): These backpacks belong to Malas (ph) and Betha (ph), 7-year- old twins from Douma.
They`re a little shy and hesitant.
They smelled something Malas (ph) says.
Their mother, Imoor (ph), tells us they remember everything vividly.
They were hiding in a basement when the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma took place. They could barely breathe. She felt her body go limp.
She clawed her way up, dragging her daughters but then the other strikes began.
We were between two deaths, she remembers, either from chemical strikes or the others on the rooftop.
(on camera): The smell is still quite strong because I think that they weren`t able to wash yet.
Look, that`s the toy that her daughter hid away to try to keep her safe and she would tell the toy, you know, you might -- you might suffocate but at
least you`ll be safe from the bombing. That is how -- that`s how the kids` minds work.
Yesterday, they were digging a tunnel for the ants so that the ants wouldn`t suffocate, just in case something happened.
(voice-over): In another tent, we meet a boy with a jagged scar running across his abdomen from shrapnel. His uncle, who doesn`t want to be
identified, was among the worst affected in the family in the chemical strike.
He says a blood sample was taken the day before. This new camp is inhabited with those who survived the siege of Douma. Its relentless,
months-long bombing that drove families underground so that something as simple as feeling the sun on their skin was a luxury.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ (voice-over): Ten-second trivia:
"We are such stuff/As dreams are made on, and our little life/Is rounded with a sleep" is from what Shakespeare play?
The Tempest, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet or As You Like It?
These are the words of Prospero in Shakespeare`s play The Tempest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Will we one day wake to a world where we can rewatch our dreams on a video recorder, or is that just a pipe dream?
There are a number of scientists working on technology that could answer those questions. At the University of Texas at Austin, researchers are
using a device to measure nerve impulses while people sleep. Electrodes on their arms, legs, chin and lips are trying to detect how people are moving
and what they`re saying in their dreams.
A separate study at Japan`s Kyoto University is using a type of MRI to look at brain activity as people wake up and then try to reconstruct the images
they saw in dreams.
And another group at Northwestern University is using electrodes on brain surgery patients to detect the activity of specific brain cells. A
researcher there says this could determine the subject of dreams like a mom or a dad.
Put all this information together, one scientist says, and you might be able to see a type of replay of your dreams. A machine to do this does not
exist. Researchers say that could be decades away and if something like it is invented, there are some ethical concerns about it.
Could dreams be hacked somehow to get private information about someone?
Researchers say most people have four to six dreams per night, but forget 90 percent them. Scientists do not agree about the function dreams have or
how important they are.
The dreams of an American student and football player named Khoury Bethley go beyond the touchdowns he scores. He`s working to fulfill the dreams his
mother had for him and to keep the promise he made her. Khoury is an example of a positive athlete, a young person who`s making a difference or
persevering on and off the field. CNN.com/PositiveAthlete is where you can go to nominate someone for our new series.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KHOURY BETHLEY, POSITIVE ATHLETE: I`m Khoury Bethley. I go to Don Lugo High School. I`m going to the University of Hawaii to play football and I
have this tattoo. It represents my mom and when she passed away. And that`s why I play for her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was probably the worst (INAUDIBLE) that hurt my life. It was a thing you don`t prepare for or thing you don`t know what to
tell your kids.
BETHLEY: I lost my mom to brain cancer at age 6. She`d come home and then start feeling sick, until she`d come -- she`d go back to the hospital and
then she`s ended up losing all her memory and everything and she just passed away
That`s why I play for her, her and my family and just want to make it so I can take care f my family and just to live out what she wanted us to do,
just get our education.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: General ed first and then you can get the bachelors degrees after that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, right now, we`re currently about 36 percent of our students qualified to go to colleges, including Khoury. He`s been a
great role model in letting students know that despite your circumstances, you need to keep going forward and finish with college so that you can make
a good life for yourself.
BETHLEY: I made a pledge to my mom before she passed away that I`d get my degree my college and graduate and get my diploma.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He`s a very humble young man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to take a moment to introduce all of our seniors, number six, Khoury Bethley
SUBTITLE: Steve Bethley remarried. They lovingly called their new extended family "Brown Brady Brunch".
BETHLEY: She always was like my angel. She`s watching down on me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: In the northern hemisphere, it`s officially been spring since March 20, but the first part of April has brought blizzard conditions to the
northern plains and the Upper Midwest.
The cold and the snow have set records in several states including Michigan where meteorologist Garry Frank of affiliate WXMI reached a limit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUBTITLE: This Michigan meteorologist is sick of hearing complaints about his cold weather reports.
GARRY FRANK, WXMI METEOROLOGIST: It`s going to be fine.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`ll be fine.
FRANK: It`ll be fine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.
FRANK: It could be worse, has been worse.
Well, because you guys are dragging me down. You guys keep -- every time I get done with the seven-day, you guys are like "Ugh! Gosh!" Four-thirty,
5:30, 6:30! And then you expect me to be chipper for five straight hours. It`s miserable!
I want you guys to say, wow, that`s great news. It`s going to be 60 on Friday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But then you said it`s going to snow on again!
FRANK: Well, what do you want me to do? Lie to you? I`ll put 70 every day next ime. God!
Here`s some wind. Here`s some temperature. Twenties, feels like 19, or feels like 70. I don`t know.
Here`s a 60, I don`t know if that`s good enough for you guys. Get excited. Maybe I`ll disappoint you with the seven-day here in a few minutes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is he done? That was terrifying.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Well, the weather outside is frightful and I guess he didn`t want to weather anymore criticism. That kind of thing could give anyone an icy
demeanor. Thankfully, he got the meteorologist of his report across and even with his burning frustration, the weather itself still manage to
ensure it was a cold ending.
I`m Carl Azuz and that`s CNN 10.
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