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Finland And Sweden Apply To Join NATO; The U.S. Congress Holds A UFO Hearing; A VR Attachment Aims To Restrict Breathing. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired May 19, 2022 - 04:00:00 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, it`s good to see you. Thanks for making us part of your Thursday. I`m Carl Azuz. This is CNN 10.
Northern Europe is where we`re taking you first today. Finland and Sweden have officially applied to become part of the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization. Since the NATO alliance was established in 1949, Sweden and Finland have stayed neutral. They haven`t joined many other nearby nations
in applying for NATO membership which now includes 30 countries in Europe and North America.
So, what changed? Russia invaded Ukraine. And Finland, which shares a border with Russia and Sweden which is right next to Finland became
concerned about their own security. So, they decided to stop being neutral and try to join the NATO alliance which is led by the United States.
A Swedish government official said now is the time when the democracies of Europe and North America have to stand together against Russia`s, quote,
naked aggression against Ukraine.
When Finland started planning to do this, Russia threatened the neighboring country saying its application would be a mistake and that Russia would
retaliate. But experts say it looks like Russia`s backed down on that threat.
What`s ironic about all of this is that Russia said it invaded Ukraine in part to prevent countries from joining NATO. Russian President Vladimir
Putin sees the alliance as a threat. It was originally formed as a guard against the Soviet Union, though it`s been more focused on terrorism and
peacekeeping in recent decades.
Ukraine is not a NATO member, though it had expressed interest in the past about joining. But now, Finland and Sweden are moving toward NATO
membership. And if they`re approved, they could officially become part of the alliance in a matter of months.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN EUROPE EDITOR: After a busy day of marathon parliamentary debates in Helsinki, followed by a vote overwhelmingly in
favor of joining NATO and here in Stockholm in Sweden, a visit -- a state visit by the president of Finland to Sweden. Finally, these two Nordic
nations decided that they were going to sign their letters of intent to apply to join NATO that turns their back on generations worth of much
cherished neutrality and military non-alignment.
However, in order to join the bloc, they`ll have to get a unanimous consensus from all 30 NATO members. Most NATO members are very enthusiastic
about Sweden and Finland joining the bloc. They spend a lot on their military, have very well-trained armies, air forces and navies, and would
be welcome into the bloc to shore up the security alliance in this part of northern Europe.
There is one member though that is holding out for some concessions, at least according to its president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and that is Turkey.
And Russia appears to have backed down from earlier assertions that it might respond militarily or politically while these two countries to apply
to join NATO. Instead, they`ve said according to Russia`s foreign minister that it makes no difference.
The president of Russia though, Vladimir Putin, has warned that if there are military installations on this territory of Sweden or Finland, that
would certainly stoke a Russian response.
Well, now that the paperwork and letters of intent have been signed, they`re heading over to Brussels to be submitted to the secretary general
of NATO, Jen Stoltenberg, on Wednesday then in about a month and a half`s time there`ll be a big NATO summit taking place in Madrid. But in the
meantime, the leaders of these two countries have received an expression of support from the highest echelons of NATO, the most powerful member which
is the United States, with an invitation by the U.S. president to visit Washington, D.C. and the White House on Thursday.
Nina Dos Santos, CNN, in Stockholm, Sweden.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ (voice-over): Ten-second trivia:
In the 1950s and 1960s, America`s Project Blue Book studied what?
Soviet espionage, gyres, automotive trends or UFOs?
UFO studies were shut down in 1969 partly because they found no aliens or threats to U.S. national security.
For the first time in more than 50 years, the U.S. Congress has held a hearing on UFOs. Technically, what was discussed on Tuesday were
unidentified aerial phenomena. And before we get too excited, a U.S. military report last year said it found no evidence of aliens. So we`re
talking about objects in the sky that are hard to identify.
The government`s taking this more seriously than it did back in the 1960s, though, in part because American pilots and service members have reported
400 sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena, and some lawmakers worry they could be a threat to U.S. national security.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REPORTER: The deputy director of naval intelligence, Scott Bray, did confirm the authenticity of two videos that have been floating around the
Internet for quite some time. It shows some close encounters between Navy pilots and what the Pentagon describes as UAPs or unidentified aerial
phenomena. Here`s one of those videos.
SCOTT BRAY, DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE: What you see here is aircraft that is operating in a in a U.S. navy training range that has
observed a spherical object. In that area and as they fly by it, they take a video.
REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): And is this one of the phenomena that we can`t explain?
BRAY: I do not have an explanation for what this specific object is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: While there`s not an explanation, officials say they haven`t found anything extraterrestrial UFOs have often turned out to be weather balloons
or new man-made technology. But pilots are now being encouraged to report anything suspicious.
Next, researchers at an Austrian university have built a new kind of virtual reality attachment, one that aims to restrict breathing. It looks
like a large complex kind of snorkel. We don`t know how much it`ll cost or when people will be able to buy it.
Could this be dangerous? Well, it reportedly has a valve that automatically opens letting you breathe normally if the battery gets low.
Of course, there are limits to this hardware. It could make the VR experience worse for people who think it`s uncomfortable to begin with.
What could it be used for?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUBTITLE: This virtual reality mask can control users` breath flow to make the experience more realistic.
Researcher Markus Tatzgern and his colleagues from Salzburg University of Applied Sciences developed the mask.
MARKUS TATZGERN, RESEARCHER, SALZBURG UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES: They can use reading as another input modality for the virtual reality
experience and then can naturally interact with the environment.
SUBTITLE: Breaths blown into the mask can be translated into forces on virtual objects in real-time.
TATZGERN: They can blow out birthday candles. They can blow up balloons. So, this improves the virtual reality experience.
SUBTITLE: The mask can also manipulate breathing resistance to simulate real world situations like navigating fire.
TATZGERN: If users walk through a scene where there`s smoke or heat, then the breathing gets harder as you would expect, so we manipulate the
resistance a little bit more so that they feel an effect on their virtual avatar which on the other hand then increases embodiment so they feel more
connected to this virtual character.
SUBTITLE: The goal of this research is to improve the multisensory user experience in virtual reality.
TATZGERN: We are good at addressing vision. We are good at addressing audio and hearing. But what`s missing to improve the experience which is
not so easy to realize is haptic feedback. Everything you touch in virtual reality is kind of it doesn`t have a real -- real object behind it. So it`s
like you touch the air you interact with air basically. And the more sensory input you provide for users, the better the experience.
SUBTITLE: Though this is still in the research stage, Tatzgern and his team hope to use this technology in more scenarios in the future.
TATZGERN: There`s a lot of potential of virtual reality in training simulations because they get more immersive. You can experience things in a
safe environment, in a training simulation and also make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. There can be fires that you perceive in virtual
reality but they are not really a danger to yourself. And, of course, there are applications in psychotherapy and therapy in general, where you can
create more immersive scenarios that are maybe more enjoyable for users so that they stick to their training regimens.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC)
AZUZ: Paper airplane contests have come a long way from my middle school gym. Take for example the Red Bull Paper Wings World Final which was held
in an Austrian airplane hangar last weekend. One hundred seventy-one students from 57 countries made it here. Finalists could only use a
standardized piece of paper and only fold it, no cutting, tearing, stapling, gluing or funny business.
The winner for longest distance flew 200 feet. The winner for longest air time flew almost 15 seconds. And the winner for aerobatics delivered an
engaging artistic performance and also proposed to his girlfriend with a paper airplane.
Of course, paper is supposed to be for the first anniversary but that doesn`t mean they should fold. When a craft project landed them in Europe
and love was on the wing, maybe it was time to increase their commitment, smooth out the edges, get a good grip and take flight to keep their hearts
aloft.
I`m Carl Azuz.
Montford North Star Academy gets today`s shout-out. Thanks to our viewers in Asheville, North Carolina, for subscribing and commenting on our YouTube
Channel.
Tomorrow is Friday. You`re only a day away.
END
