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Trump Imposes "Punishing" Sanctions on Turkey; The Complicated Process of Running for U.S. President; Carbon Dioxide in Concrete Production

Aired October 15, 2019 - 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: Hi. I`m Carl Azuz for CNN 10.

In the Middle Eastern country of Syria, American troops are on the move. There are about a thousand members of the U.S. Armed Forces there. They`ve

been leading an international fight against the Islamic State terrorist group which took over large parts of Syria early in the country`s civil

war.

But now, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper says the American troops could become caught. The nation of Turkey is advancing into Northern Syria.

It`s targeting the Kurds, an ethnic group that live in the region. Kurdish militias in Syria have been American allies. They`ve helped the U.S.-led

coalition defeat Islamic State fighters.

But Turkey considers the Kurds to be terrorists. And after the U.S. removed about 50 troops from Northern Syria last week, Turkish forces

pushed into the area, their government said it was going after terrorist there and establishing peace.

The Trump administration says it`s moving all remaining U.S. troops out of Northern Syria though President Trump said last night that they`ll stay in

the region to prevent a comeback of Islamic State.

Critics of the U.S. troop movement have said that America abandoned its Kurdish allies, hurting U.S. credibility and potentially reversing gains

against Islamic State.

The Trump administration says Turkey was going to move in the Northern Syria anyway, and that the U.S. needed to get American service members away

from conflict between the Turks and any forces that fight them. Republicans and Democrats and the U.S. government have been pushing for new

sanctions, penalties on Turkey`s economy.

Last night, President Trump announced some sanctions would be put in place. It`s unclear if they`ll go far enough for those who want strict punishments

on Turkey.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

The first U.S. presidential debate broadcast on radio featured which candidate?

Thomas Dewey, Adlai Stevenson II, Herbert Hoover or Franklin D. Roosevelt?

In 1948, Republican hopefuls Harold Stassen and Thomas Dewey took part in the first debate on the radio.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: That debate was part of the primary process, a series of preliminary elections that decide which nominee appears on the presidential ballot.

Incumbent President Harry Truman defeated New York Governor Dewey that year.

Looking forward to the 2020 presidential election, there are no debate scheduled for the Republican Party where the incumbent president being a

Republican. But there`ve already been several, including one tonight for a historically large field of Democrats.

All of these events are milestones on the long road to the presidency.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZACHARY WOLF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You want to run for president. Being president makes you the single most powerful person, man or woman, in the

world.

But it`s also a multiyear commitment that forces you to give up your personal life and any since of privacy.

And then about half the country`s going to hate you no matter what you do.

The Constitution has only three requirements, natural born citizen, at least 35 years old, 14 years residing in the United States.

But there`s so much more to it. First, there`s the primary process.

Since only Republicans or Democrats are seen as serious candidates you have to choose a party and get popular in that party.

An inspirational biography helps. Maybe some years as governor or senator. You spend nearly a year bouncing back and forth from Iowa to New Hampshire

to South Carolina to Nevada. If you`re not with voters, you`re raising money and raising money and raising money.

It takes millions to mount a serious bid and you can only raise $2,700 per donor for the primary and $2,700 per donor for the general election. If

you get that far.

Hillary Clinton raised and spent almost $1 billion losing to Donald Trump. He raised much less.

The primaries are expensive too. Bernie Sanders spent $222 million on his 2016 primary loss.

Why is it so expensive? You`ve got to have an army of staffers and volunteers. You have to buy TV ads, Internet ads. In the general

election, you`re going to spend every waking hour in Pennsylvania, Florida, Michigan, maybe Ohio, Colorado. If you want to win, you should probably

visit Wisconsin.

There are debates and town halls and interview after interview after interview.

And then if you win, you get to be president. It means you live above the office. You get to try to work with Congress to get something done. Oh,

and you`re going to have to start running for reelection on day one.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: What would you think is the most abundant manmade material on earth? Steel, plastic, glass? The answer is concrete.

And while it`s an incredibly useful and ubiquitous material, producing it releases a large amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

There is technology available that prevents the gas from being released, but it comes at an additional cost, at least at first, and only a few dozen

out of thousands of American plants use it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUSTIN LAZENBY, TECHNICAL SERVICES MANAGER, THOMAS CONCRETE: You wake up in the morning and you`re in contact with it. You go to bed later, and

then as you eat, sleep, play throughout the day, you`re in contact with concrete at some point.

RACHEL CRANE, CNN INNOVATION CORRESPONDENT: I mean, everything we see here is pretty much concrete.

LAZENBY: Exactly. All the buildings have concrete in it, the roadway has concrete. Everything you see, there`s concrete in it somewhere.

CRANE: The concrete has an emissions problem. The energy intensive process of making concrete releases massive amounts of CO2 into the

atmosphere, its main ingredient is responsible for 7 percent of global CO2 emissions. But what if there was a way that instead of releasing carbon

dioxide, concrete could trap it forever?

There`s a reason concrete is everywhere. At Thomas Concrete in Atlanta, it`s their business.

LAZENBY: There is no material that will do the same thing as concrete. You cannot have the same type of strength levels, you cannot have the same

type of durability.

CRANE: I mean, it is the second most consumed substance on the planet after water.

LAZENBY: Right.

CRANE: Concrete is a mixture of rocks, sand, water and most importantly, cement to bind it altogether. But cement has a huge carbon footprint. One

ton of cement releases one pound of CO2 emissions. It`s the second highest industrial source of CO2 on the planet. But without cement, concrete

doesn`t hold up skyscrapers.

All right. So, this is what`s different about your operation here?

LAZENBY: This is -- this is kind of the brains of the (INAUDIBLE)

CRANE: This silver tank is the newest thing in concrete. It`s called Carbon Cure. This innovative injects carbon dioxide into the concrete as

it`s being mixed. When the concrete hardens, those otherwise harmful emissions are sequestered forever, before they even reach our atmosphere.

Christie Gamble is part of the team behind Carbon Cure`s technology.

CHRISTIE GAMBLE, DIRECTOR OF SUSTAINABILITY, CARBON CURE: We actually convert the CO2 into mineral. It`s a stone. It`s getting trapped in the

concrete forever. And the best part about it is that the mineral itself actually improves the compressive strength for the concrete.

CRANE: That`s right. The real selling point here, adding CO2 actually makes the concrete stronger. That means producers like Thomas Concrete can

use less cement in their mixtures and still achieve the same strength. Less cement equals fewer emissions.

Compression tests like this one prove that the concrete made with Carbon Cure is just as hardy as the traditional stuff.

That will wake you up.

You go to any major city right now, there`s construction happening all over the place.

GAMBLE: Exactly. If we`re able to reduce 5 percent of the carbon footprint of the concrete industry, that`s a significant change from we`re

at right now. Ultimately, if this technology was deployed across the globe, we could reduce about 700 megatons of CO2 every year, and that`s the

same as taking 150 million cars off the road every year.

CRANE: It`s going to take the concrete industry changing the way they do things. Carbon Cure says about 90 concrete plants across the U.S. and

Canada use its technology right now. That`s a fraction of the estimate 5,500 plants in the U.S. alone.

GAMBLE: The concrete industry is very slow to take on new change and innovation and it`s understandable because they work in an industry where

quality is everything. The implications of sending concrete to sites that`s no up to quality could be catastrophic.

CRANE: Ultimately, it all comes down to the bottom line. Companies pay to use Carbon Cure signature system and have to buy CO2 from a factory where

it`s emitted, but they save money by using less of their most expensive ingredient.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AZUZ: At an assisted living center in Texas, a group of senior citizens said they missed giving out candy on Halloween. So, they took to social

media to ask their community to send in candy and to let the local kids know their home was a safe and fun place to trick or treat.

Well, the candy has come pouring in and the seniors are hoping all of the kids in the surrounding neighborhood come knocking at their door in just

over two weeks.

If we would just Twist a bit closer, I`d totally Pop in. Sure, there might be some Sneakers and older kids Starbursting through the door like some

giant nerd or jolly rancher. Some might want to gobstop in my tracks or tell me to Skittle-daddle.

But that would only cost Musketeers when all I`d want is to walk a Milky Way full of Almond Joy with my Butterfingers clasped around the whole

chocolat-a-sugar.

I`m Carl Azuz and that is CNN 10.

END