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Military Drills Around An Island; Unprecedented Second Blackout in Cuba; High Tech Upgrade to a Beloved Classic Car From the 1960s. Aired 4- 4:10a ET
Aired October 23, 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: What`s up, Sunshine? I`m Coy Wire. This is CNN 10. And you know what day it is. It is Your Word Wednesday, so listen up to see
if one of your vocabulary submissions helped us write today`s show.
Let`s get to it. We start with increasing turmoil for one of the United States` key partners, Taiwan. Taiwan`s President Lai Ching-te visited the
island`s coast guard in a show of support as tensions with China continue to rise. It was in response to large-scale military drills China held last
week in the Taiwan Strait, a narrow body of water that surrounds Taiwan and separates it from mainland China.
China`s military exercises lasted over a day, involving fighter jets, drones, warships, and coast guard vessels that simulated a blockade of the
self-governing island. Analysts say China`s general strategy is to both keep Taiwan under pressure and normalize regular war games.
And China`s military exercises around Taiwan, which have increased in recent years, could be a way of monitoring Taiwan`s responses while
straining their military resources, like an aging fleet of fighter jets. The ruling Chinese Communist Party views Taiwan as part of its territory,
even though it`s never controlled it, and for a long time has vowed that the island must be unified with the Chinese mainland, including by force if
necessary.
Authorities in Taiwan, a democracy of 24 million people, strongly reject China`s territorial claims over it, and condemned the drills as an
unreasonable provocation by Beijing, China`s capital.
The United States has a robust unofficial relationship with Taiwan, as it is a leading democracy and a technological powerhouse with whom the U.S.
shares deep commercial and economic links. CNN`s Will Ripley has more on what Taiwan`s president pledges to do in response to China`s latest
maneuvers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: On Friday, the president of Taiwan, Lai Ching-te, paid a visit to the island`s Coast
Guard, where he thanked them for their service, and pledged to build 11 new Coast Guard vessels over the next seven years, significantly beefing up the
island`s Coast Guard defense at a time that Taipei is sounding the alarm about China`s Coast Guard, and the key role it played in the Joint Sword-
2024B drills that simulated a Taiwan blockade earlier this week.
This was the first full encirclement of Taiwan by China`s Coast Guard, Taipei says, including using a 12,000-ton vessel, one of 17 vessels that
Taipei says it detected around its territorial waters during the drills. They also say China`s Coast Guard intruded into restricted waters near
Taiwan`s outlying Matsu Islands.
Now, this is not the first time this year that China`s Coast Guard has been accused by Taipei of playing an increasingly large role in intimidating the
island. It was back in February when China`s Coast Guard actually boarded a Taiwanese tourist boat, checked everyone`s ID and detained them, giving
people quite a scare and sparking an online frenzy here about the role of China`s Coast Guard, something that Taipei has long referred to as a gray
zone tactic, non-military but nonetheless coercive and intimidating force sanctioned by Beijing.
In addition to the Coast Guard activities near Taiwan, they posted a propaganda image showing the track of the vessels that encircled this self-
governing democracy that appeared to be in the shape of a heart. In fact, Chinese propaganda even referred to Taiwan as sweetheart, seen as creepy by
some locals.
It`s not just happening in Taiwan. There have also been confrontations between China`s Coast Guard and other Coast Guards, particularly in the
Philippines, over disputed shoals there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Did you know that the broadest tree in the world is about the size of four football fields? This is not a forest. This is the world`s broadest
tree, the Great Banyan, located in a botanical garden near Kolkata, India. It takes up about five acres of land and it`s believed to be more than 250
years old. Great Banyan trees have a unique root system, aerial roots. They drop down from branches to the ground, becoming trunk-like, allowing the
tree to continuously walk, if you will, growing wider and wider.
We head now to Cuba, where people are still reeling after having to deal with nationwide blackouts, then the arrival of Category 1 hurricane Oscar
this week. Cuba`s aging power grid collapsed multiple times before Oscar made landfall, hindering preparations for the storm. Strong winds, heavy
rains, and dangerous flooding took the lives of six people.
CNN`s Patrick Oppmann is on the ground in Havana with an update on how people are coping after days without electricity.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Near empty streets in Havana, devoid of light and life. On the third night of an
island-wide blackout in Cuba, residents of this neighborhood play dominoes to pass the time and distract them from the worsening situation.
Children are sleeping in the street, she says, because there`s no food, no water, no electricity in this country.
Tensions are running high as Cubans increasingly are taking to the streets to beat pots and pans and protest the government`s failure to keep the
lights on for more than a few hours.
(On camera): Already four times the Cuban government has been in the process of restoring power and had it all come crashing down and a complete
loss of power on this island. So that is what worries people, is that the longer this goes on, we already know that school is going to be canceled
here for several days. Life really can`t return to normal until the power gets on.
(Voice-over): The Cuban government blames U.S. economic sanctions for the crisis, but has made little investment in the aging jerry-rigged power grid
that has been fading for years. Officials say more than 52,000 workers are on the job 24-7 trying to restore power and that they understand the
growing anger.
Without electricity, there`s no water, he says, no medicine production, no food distribution. Electricity affects everything and it frustrates
everyone.
In 2021, power outages sparked the largest ever protests against Cuba`s communist-run government. Hundreds of people were arrested and given
lengthy prison sentences following mass trials.
Cuba`s president on Sunday warned people not to take to the streets. We are not going to allow acts of vandalism and much less alter the tranquility of
our people, he says. That`s a conviction, a principle of our revolution. A stern warning, but one that likely falls on deaf ears for the millions of
Cubans still in the dark.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Pop quiz hot shot, what was the first car maker to put seatbelts in its cars?
Volkswagen, Ford, Volvo or Toyota?
Your answer here is Volvo, which first used the familiar three-point seatbelt in 1959. The first law requiring seatbelts in U.S. cars wasn`t
passed until 1968.
Today`s story getting a 10 out of 10, talk about a throwback to the future, a Volkswagen that became an ebullient symbol for peace and love and flower
child counterculture in the 1960s and 70s got a major glow up. In kilowatts, that is, it`s now all electric. For decades, it`s been called
everything from a bus to a microbus, a van, a tin can. But now it`s making his debut as the ID. Buzz.
CNN`s Peter Valdes-Dapena takes us for a ride.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETER VALDES-DAPENA, CNN SENIOR WRITER: This is the Volkswagen ID. Buzz, a new all electric take on a classic. The Volkswagen microbus. With 60 years
of progress, this is a big improvement over the old bus.
And I should know, I spent time riding around in one when I was a little kid.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that`s you.
VALDES-DAPENA: I had a big family. We needed a lot of space, so we had a bus.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you would break, all the water would run forward and go right down the back of your neck when you were driving.
VALDES-DAPENA: I thought it`d be cool to take this new van to visit some of my brothers that had more time in the driver`s seat in the classic.
Why do I have to sit in the back seat?
VALDES-DAPENA: Volkswagen`s been trying forever to break through in the U.S. market again, the way it did back in the day with the Beetle. Nobody
else has the microbus in its history. So Volkswagen`s hoping that emotional attachment is going to bring them a lot of new buyers.
Cruising about 70 miles an hour, going down the interstate, complete silence. All I can hear is the wind. Big difference from the old version
with an air-cooled four-cylinder engine outback.
My only real pet peeve with it is too much reliance on screens for some of the controls. But honestly, that`s true of a lot of new electric vehicles
these days.
I have to warn you, the ID. Buzz might be cute, but it`s not going to come cheap. One equipped like this is going to be more like $65,000.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: As always, you all had some truly exemplary submissions for Your Word Wednesday. Today`s winner is Ms. Johnson`s class at Kodiak High School in
Kodiak, Alaska, for ebullient, an adjective meaning having liveliness and enthusiasm. Well done. And thank you for making us smarter today.
Our shout out today goes to Eureka, Missouri and all the Wildcats at Eureka High School. Rise up.
Have an awesome day, everyone. I`ll see you right back here tomorrow on CNN 10.
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