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Iran Cracks Down Amid Protests Over Mahsa Amini`s Death; Hurricane Fiona Slams Canada; NASA`s DART Is About To Crash Into An Asteroid. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired September 26, 2022 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Happy Monday, everyone. Welcome to CNN 10. I`m Coy, and I`m so grateful to be right here with you.
Powerful show today so let`s get right to it.
We start by taking you to the country of Iran. Last week, protests and rallies began in the Middle Eastern nation after a young woman died in the
custody of the government. Her name was Mahsa Amini. She was visiting the country from Kurdistan. Iranian authorities have said Amini died of natural
causes but some reports suggested that Amini`s death was a result of poor treatment.
Amini was arrested for allegedly violating Iran`s strict Islamic dress code requiring women to wear headscarves or hijabs. That requirement became
mandatory in public for Iranian women after the 1979 Islamic revolution. But a new order this year by the Iranian president added new restrictions
to that dress code. That order and the questions around Amini`s death have resulted in anti-government protests in at least 40 cities.
On Friday, though, thousands of Iranian counterprotesters in support of the government also gathered in the capital of Tehran in a show of support for
authorities.
The Iranian government is calling for peace in the country and says they`ll restrict the internet until calm is restored. More now from CNN`s
international correspondent Jomana Karadsheh who`s on the ground covering the latest across Iran.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fury and defiance on the streets of dozens of Iranian cities, protests raging on a
scale not seen in years. At least 50 people have been killed, according to Iran human rights amidst signs a heavy-handed crackdown was coming.
The protests were sparked by the death of a 22-year-old woman in the custody of the notorious morality police who say they detained her for not
abiding by this strict Islamic dress code.
The government says it`s launched an investigation. They claim Mahsa Amini died of a heart attack. Her family blame her death on police brutality.
Calls for accountability have turned into cries for freedoms this generation of Iranians have never known. Young women are rising up, leading
protests in unprecedented acts of defiance burning the head scarves they`ve been forced to wear for decades.
On Friday, more ominous warnings from authorities. The Iranian army they say is ready to step in and deal with conspiracies of so-called enemies.
As the country descends into darkness, with internet disruptions not seen since the 2019 protests, many now bracing for what the coming hours and
days may bring.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Next up, hundreds of thousands of people on Canada`s eastern coastline are feeling the effects of Hurricane Fiona. The same storm that
brought devastation to parts of the Caribbean. Then made landfall in the province of Nova Scotia on Saturday. More than 400,000Canadians were
without power Saturday night.
The storm brought devastating wind and storm surge throughout Canada`s coastline. Violent waves sweeping homes away to sea while others were
destroyed by electrical fires. Authorities declared a state of emergency for some parts of the province of Newfoundland, the easternmost part of the
country.
Some families fled to shelter while others sheltered in place. The Canadian armed forces deployed to the region to help with the cleanup. But look at
this, the video you`re looking at now was captured from inside of Hurricane Fiona as it moved toward the Canadian coast.
CNN`s Rachel Crane takes us now to the company that`s trying to better understand hurricanes by sailing right into the eye of the storm.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Traditionally, scientists capture hurricane data by flying planes directly through them dropping
probes into the sky along the way. But in order to completely understand a storm, scientists say more data needs to be collected from the surface of
the ocean.
RICHARD JENKINS, SAILDRONE, CEO: What drives a hurricane`s strength is a transfer of heat and moisture from the ocean to the atmosphere. We don`t
quite understand the dynamics of how that works.
CRANE: In order to find out, Saildrone deployed five ships into the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean. Areas where lots of hurricanes develop are
likely to hit land. They`re powered by the sun and wind, can stay out at sea for months at a time and are built to take a beating.
JENKINS: It`s really designed to get hit by a wave, tumble, submerge then come back up and carry on sailing.
CRANE: And I see a camera up top.
JENKINS: This hurricane mission is key to understand the spray, the foam on the water. So, we`re hoping that we can see with the camera, what the
water looks like.
CRANE: The drone`s sensors and cameras can send data and images in real time back to Saildrone headquarters.
CHRIS MEINIG, NOAA PMEL: These are measurements of wind, temperature, humidity, right at that interface level that may help the modelers
understand the fundamentals of hurricanes better. That`s never been done before.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: Ten-second trivia time:
Which of these space rocks is also referred to as a minor planet?
Meteoroid, asteroid, comet or meteorite?
Asteroids are also called minor planets, and today, NASA plans to crash a spacecraft right into one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: Last week, we took a detailed look at the $324 million NASA spacecraft that`s scheduled to deliberately slam into an asteroid. It`s
called DART or Double Asteroid Redirection Test. And the plan is to study whether it would be able to possibly deflect a potential asteroid if one
were headed toward Earth. The collision is scheduled to happen tonight.
And CNN`s Kristin Fisher visited with the DART mission control team ahead of the big moment.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELENA ADAMS, DART MISSION SYSTEM ENGINEER: It`s kind of what we all fear, right? What if there was an asteroid that was coming toward Earth, can you
really stop it? Can you really do something about it? And for the first time, our technology allows us to actually do something about it.
KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE & DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): NASA is planning to ram a refrigerator-sized spacecraft called DART into an
asteroid named Dimorphos, which is roughly the size of the pyramid of Giza and poses no threat to planet Earth. The goal is to see if the impact will
push Dimorphos slightly off course. If it works, it means that this technique could be used to deflect a future killer asteroid that is headed
for Earth.
BOBBY BRAUN, HOPKINS APPLIED PHYSICS LABORATORY: This inaugural planetary defense test mission marks a major moment in human history. For the first
time ever, we will measurably change the orbit of a celestial body in the universe.
FISHER: Mission control is inside the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland.
What is this place going to be like on impact day or impact night I should say?
ADAMS: Oh, my goodness. It`s going to be filled to the brink with people. There`s going to be people in every single seat in the whole mission
operations center. But 44 people in here alone.
FISHER: And they`ll be able to watch the impact live as will everyone on earth, thanks to a camera that`s mounted on the spacecraft.
These are live images.
ADAMS: Live images from DART right now.
FISHER: One of the most tense moments for the team will happen at 50 minutes to impact, when the spacecraft will switch its sights from a bigger
asteroid it`s pointed at now to a smaller second asteroid which is the real target.
EVAN SMITH, DART DEPUTY MISSION SYSTEMS ENGINEER: That`s a very, very sweaty time for us. So we have a lot of contingencies built right around
that 50-minute transition. We`re going to be watching the telemetry like hawks. Very scared, but excited.
ADAMS: Then we`re going to have it get closer and closer and it`ll fill the field of view of our imager then we`re going to hit.
FISHER: It`s a moment this team has been training for, for months. But even the rehearsals have been tense.
ADAMS: We`re just all one by one stood up with all of our headsets and all of us were intently watching the screens. Just watching the asteroid get
bigger and bigger, and my heart was actually palpitating because I was like this is not normal, right? It`s just a rehearsal. But yet, you really felt
like you were about to hit that asteroid for the first time.
FISHER: You`re really testing --
ADAMS: We`re testing.
FISHER: -- this technology that could potentially save all of humankind down the road.
ADAMS: Down the road, right.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FISHER (on camera): Now, we should know almost immediately on Monday night if the DART spacecraft successfully hit its target. But NASA says it`s
going to take a few weeks to determine if DART was successfully able to move that asteroid just a little bit off its current orbit.
Kristin Fisher, CNN, Washington.
WIRE: For today`s 10 out of 10, it`s a boat, it`s a plane, it`s an all- electric battery-powered boat plane? The sea glider is designed to float not just on water but also on a cushion of air, gliding just above the
water`s surface. The vehicle is meant to transport travelers and goods between coasts and islands.
This is just a quarter scale prototype but the co-founder of the company called Regent says a full-size ride gets a trial in 2024. So if you`re
going to go somewhere, you can`t go buy a car and you`d rather not go by boat or plane, maybe you`ll be sea gliding soon. How a boat that?
Speaking of going by car and boats, why is it that we transport something by car, it`s called a shipment, but when we transport it by a ship, it`s
called cargo? I never got that one.
Time now for a special shout-out to Mr. Williams` class at Tucker Middle School in Tucker, Georgia. Thanks to you and everyone choosing to get your
news right here at CNN 10. I`m Coy Wire. Have a wonderful Monday. We`ll see you tomorrow.
END
