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Residents in Indiana and Ohio are Surveying the Damage After Tornadoes Collapsed Homes and Left at Least 3 Dead; Northern Thailand`s Air Pollution Becoming a Tourism Issue; A Private Boarding School Bans The Use of Smartphones; Bees Cause a Buzz and Lengthy Disruption at Indian Wells Tennis. Aired 4-4:10a ET

Aired March 18, 2024 - 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: Hello, and welcome to CNN 10. I`m your host, Coy Wire. Hope you had an awesome weekend.

Complacency is the constant enemy, so let`s learn one thing, let`s do something today that makes us a little better today than we were yesterday.

Now, we do start with some tough news today. Deadly storms are sweeping across the United States. This is video of hail the size of a baseball

falling in Kansas this past week. It`s part of an intense storm that impacted millions across the country. States throughout the West,

Southeast, and Northeast were on alert for large hail, damaging winds, heavy rainfall, and tornadoes.

Several tornadoes touched down in the states of Indiana and Ohio. At least three people died, dozens more were injured as thousands went without power

as many residents had their homes and businesses destroyed by the tornadoes.

In Selma, Indiana, a town of roughly 700 people, about half of the buildings appear to be damaged from the intense storm. Major snow storms

rocked parts of the nation as well. Nearly four feet of snow blanketed parts of Colorado last week, shutting down roads, schools, and businesses.

The first day of spring is tomorrow, but it looks like Mother Nature is putting warmer temperatures off a bit longer as temperatures are expected

to be at or below freezing this week across the nation, impacting more than half of the U.S. population.

Let`s head to Thailand now, where air pollution and smog have brought many concerns to the Southeast Asian country. Thailand`s popular tourist

location in the north called Chiang Mai had the dubious distinction as one of the world`s most polluted cities. That was according to IQAir, which is

a company that monitors air quality. Besides covering the beautiful visuals in this area, it`s also causing health issues. Our Michael Holmes has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Not the view some tourists had hoped for, a thick layer of smog covering the city of Chiang Mai in Thailand. On a clear

day, this overlook is usually a popular photo stop, but haze is once again obscuring the view. Perhaps not surprising, since Chiang Mai ranks as one

of the world`s most polluted cities, according to IQAir, a website that monitors air quality.

But the smog isn`t just unsightly, it`s unhealthy. IQAir says the level of cancer-causing pollutants in Chiang Mai`s air is more than 20 times higher

than World Health Organization guidelines, and people are getting sick from it. A Thai government report says more than 10 million people required

treatment for pollution-related illnesses last year, with many people wearing masks to protect themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): On the day that I don`t wear a face mask, I`m exposed to pollution. Then I would come home with an

allergic rash on my arm. I can`t breathe. I have a stuffed nose.

HOLMES: In northern Thailand, high pollution levels are common during the early months of the year when farmers burn crops to clear the fields. But

this year, the government says it`s taking steps to curb the problem. Legislation for a Clean Air Act is underway, and Thailand`s prime minister

says he`ll impose regulations on crop burning, but didn`t give further details.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: Ten second trivia. When was the launch of the Voyager 1 spacecraft?

1964, 1972, `77, or `88?

On September 5th of 1977, Voyager 1 launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It has explored Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Most of us keep in touch with people who are far away via text message, phone call, maybe a letter. But what do you do when you`re trying to send

or receive messages really far away, like billions of miles up in a spacecraft in outer space far away? That`s exactly what NASA engineers are

dealing with, with the world`s farthest-traveling spacecraft Voyager 1. It`s one of the twin probes that`s been exploring our solar system since

1977, even though it was only built to last five years.

Engineers are in communication. Voyager 1 sends a steady radio signal back to mission control. But since November, the probe`s flight data system has

been acting a bit wonky. It can complete given commands, but important data has not been transmitting back to Earth. So what did mission control do?

Well, they poked it.

They sent what they call a poke on March 1st, a command prompting Voyager to run different software in case there`s been a glitch. Two days later,

Voyager 1 sent back an unusually formatted response decoded by a member of NASA`s Deep Space Network to show it was the system`s own coding.

The team will compare and contrast this new report to data from the spacecraft before the problem arose, and try to suss out what exactly is

happening on the spacecraft about 15 billion miles away.

Question for you. How would you feel about going to a school where they don`t allow any smartphones on campus? Maybe that`s already the case for

some of you. But if not, how would you feel about being away from your phone for eight hours or so each day? If you like the idea, why? If not,

what would be your reasoning for the objection?

Our CNN Digital team went to one small high school in Massachusetts where they don`t allow smartphones so we could learn why the school did it and

what the outcome has been.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Buxton School, a small private boarding school for grades 9 to 12 in Massachusetts, banned smartphones on campus back in 2022.

JOHN KALAPOS, CO-DIRECTOR: It was absolute chaos.

OWEN, SENIOR: Oh boy.

NOELLE, JOHN: People thought it was a joke at first.

KALAPOS: They were not happy. Parents were calling us.

NOELLE: There was a lot of, like, I can`t live without my phone.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Students tell CNN that they know this place is special. Buxton isn`t like many other schools. It`s home to only 55

students, many living full-time on campus away from their families, making this a tight-knit community.

Plus, the school practices progressive education. That means teachers don`t track test scores or grades. But just like more traditional high schools,

teachers at Buxton were struggling to hold students` attention. Kids were glued to their screens.

KALAPOS: It was a lot of little things, right? It`s that when you`re teaching a lesson and you can tell that half the class is, like, discreetly

looking under their desk at something. It`s walking into a lunchroom and seeing half the lunchroom scrolling on TikToks instead of talking to their

friends. It`s walking down the path, everyone`s looking down, everyone`s not looking up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is, until administration banned smartphones on campus about a year and a half ago.

NOELLE: I`ve been more social, like, naturally instead of being, like, forced to be social.

OWEN: People were more there at the meals. I mean, I was sitting with people I didn`t sit with before, with new groups of people and, you know,

talking to all these new people.

NORI, JUNIOR: This is from earlier and, like, Iris drew this part without seeing any of this and then Jasper drew this part and then we opened it up

and see, like, what we made all together.

OWEN: Last night we had a dorm party.

KALAPOS: We have a black and white photography program here. That photo program went from 12 students to 35 students because now everyone`s

carrying a 35mm camera and printing in the darkroom.

OWEN: The initial idea of no phones felt a lot more intense than actually not having phones. It was more like no access to social media all the time

in your pocket.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most of the students CNN interviewed welcomed the change of pace brought on by the smartphone ban. But the jury`s still out

for some.

NORI: I sort of have the opinion that it was not a good idea to ban phones. If you don`t get practice with phones, they are designed to be so

addictive. They`re not getting practice using their phones while going to school and stuff like that.

NOELLE: I mean, we still have iPads, we still have computers. People can have flip phones. Like, I think a lot of people are like, the world is

going to end. I don`t know how I`m going to survive without my phone. And I think as time goes on, people have adapted to like using a computer. Like

I`ve sent a lot more emails since I`ve gotten better at emailing.

OWEN: I feel like there`s this pressure to have a presence online and to be active with your presence online and do all this stuff online. After not

having a phone and not being able to keep up with that always, I find that that`s not needed. Phones are overrated. Definitely.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: Today`s story, getting a 10 out of 10, unbelievable scenes as two of the top tennis stars in the world battled it out at Indian Wells. Carlos

Alcaraz and Alex Zverev were playing for a spot in the semifinals and they`re swarmed by what seems like a bazillion bees, an estimated 3,500 of

them, as you can see from this clip from ATP Media.

The players made a beeline off the court, but how would they get rid of them? Honey thing is possible. They called a beekeeper named Lance Davis,

who instantly "bee-came" an internet star. He vacuumed up all the bees into a cage and transported them to one of his personal hives. After an hour and

40-minute delay, play "bee-sumed." Alcaraz won. Not all heroes wear capes.

Time for me to "bee" on my way and buzz off, but before I do, we`re sending our swarmest wishes to Southampton Middle School in Southampton, Virginia.

Thank you for subscribing and sending your shout-out requests to our CNN 10 YouTube channel.

And this shout out goes to Central High School in Muncie, Indiana. Rise up. Thanks for spending part of your day with us.

I`m Coy Wire, going out and making an awesome Monday. Let`s do it again tomorrow.

END