Return to Transcripts main page


Public Unrest in Ferguson, Outbreak of Ebola Spreads around; Missouri; Five Cases Where Pope Frances Shows Toughness; Stepping on the Moon

Aired August 19, 2014 - 04:00:00   ET


CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: CNN STUDENT NEWS is back in session. I`m Carl Azuz with ten minutes of commercial free current events. That includes what`s

happening in the town of Ferguson, Missouri. Five things to know about this.

One, the crisis started when a white police officer shot and killed an armed African-American man, that was on August 9, two, there are

conflicting reports about what exactly happened. Witnesses say there was a scuffle between 18-year old Michael Brown and Officer Darren Wilson. They

say Brown had his hands up, trying to surrender when he was shot. Police say Brown struggled with Officer Wilson and reached for his gun, one report

says Brown was charging the officer when he was shot. Three, results for an autopsy requested by Brown`s family were announced yesterday. A doctor

says there weren`t signs of a struggle on Brown`s body, and that he`d been shot at least six times. Four, protests have been violent. Several

businesses have been vandalized and looted, protesters have thrown Molotov cocktails at police. Police have fired tear gas at crowds of protesters.

Five, the demonstrations got so violent Sunday night that Missouri`s governor called on the National Guard. It`s deploying to help restore

peace to Ferguson.

An outbreak of the Ebola virus in West Africa is spreading. And there are fears that a recent attack in Liberia could make things worse. The

outbreak started this spring, it`s sickened more than 2100 people in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone and it`s killed more than half of

them. Borders and roads have been closed in the region, medical centers are overcrowded. In part of Liberia`s capital many residents are angry

that Ebola patients were brought to the area for treatment, so some people attacked the medical center, looting items like sheets, beds and medical

equipment, and it`s likely that some of the items were contaminated. No one was hurt in the attack, but some contagious patients fled the medical

center, and there are concerns that the items that were stolen could further spread Ebola.

Heading northeast to the smallest country in the world, Vatican City, population 842 people. One of them is Pope Francis, the leader of the

Roman Catholic Church. Earlier this spring, a year after he became pope, one poll found that 68 percent of Catholics had a favorable view of him.

One percent had an unfavorable view. So, what are some of the things he stands for?


DANIEL BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pope Francis has pretty much convinced the world he`s one of the nicest guys on the planet, but here are five ways

he`s tougher than you think. Number one, politics. In many ways, this pope sounds like a typical political progressive. He`s pro-environment,

pro-immigrant and anti-war. But that doesn`t mean his heart bleeds for every liberal cause. For instance, the Pope opposes abortion, same sex

marriage, adoption by gay couples and legalizing drugs. He said he doesn`t want Catholics to focus too much on the culture wars, but that doesn`t mean

he doesn`t back the church`s side in all the important battles.

Number two, women. Nobody really expected Pope Francis to overturn centuries of church teaching and (INAUDIBLE) women to become priests. But

he has said they should have a larger role in the church. What kind of role, nobody really knows and some women in the United States are getting

tired of waiting.

Number three, this pope fires people. He`s tired about hearing about the corruption and the turf wars inside the Vatican. So, he`s cleaning house.

In June, for example, he fired all five members of a board that oversees Vatican finances. Even though those guys had just been reappointed by his

predecessor, Pope Benedict. He`s all about reform, and if you get in his way, he`s going to remove you.

Number four, this Pope has a sharp tongue, and he`s not afraid to cut loose. Case in point, he called previous popes "narcissists, flattered by

yes-men." Those yes-men, he said, he called them "the leprosy of the papacy." One Catholic blogger even collected all the papal insults into a

book that he satirically called "The Pope Francis Little Book of Insults."

Number five, taking on the mafia. Some Italian experts have warned that this pope may be in trouble with the mafia, mainly because he`s reforming

the Vatican Bank. But that didn`t stop him from driving to the mafia`s heartland in southern Italy and telling them all basically to their face

that they are being kicked out of the church.

The last time a pope tried something like that, the mafia responded by bombing Catholic Churches in Rome including the pope`s home church.


AZUZ: So we`ve got this segment called "Roll Call." It`s a chance to have your school announced on CNN STUDENT NEWS. There`s now only one way to

submit a request, and you need to be at least 13 years old. Go to cnnstudentnews.com. Click words that says "Roll Call" and leave a comment

at the bottom of our transcript page. We`ll pick three schools from each days` transcript. You can make one request every day, but spamming will

not help you. Please tell us your school name, city, state and mascot. Good luck.

At the U.S. Supreme Court, there`s a basketball court. It`s located in the top floor of the gym, and it`s been nicknamed the highest court in the

land. When real court`s in session, though, practice is not allowed. Now, that`s random.

Let`s say our next segment brings us back down to earth, but it doesn`t really. Two cosmonauts, at the International Space Station stepped out for

a walk yesterday. They had a couple of things to do hundreds of miles above us. One was release a satellite, a miniature one. It`s a tiny four-

inch box from Peru that will orbit the earth, take pictures and measure temperature and pressure. The other part of their mission was to replace

some old equipment including science experiments on the Russian part of the International Space Station. Space walks make look slow and simple, but

they are a dangerous part of any space mission, and that`s today. Imagine what one was like 45 years ago on the Moon.


MIKE LISA, RETIRED INSTRUMENTATION ENGINEER: We were glued to the television set, working on something that is going to just be a ground (ph)

forever. This is absolutely incredible.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go for a knocking.

LISA: When Aldrin and Armstrong had released themselves from the command module, they disengaged and come flying back down into the Moon and they

were basically on their back. "Roger, Eagle`s Undocked." When they ejected themselves from that command module, and they were on their way

towards the Moon and they were on their back .

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How does it look?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Eagle has wings.

LISA: If they didn`t have that restrain on us that could have been some big trouble.

They didn`t have a lot of maneuverability.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boy, I`ll tell you, this is much harder to do than it looked.

ROSS BRACCO, RETIRED MEDICAL ENGINEER: As you are looking, you lose the prospective how big is that boulder.


UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drifting to the right .

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tranquility base here, the Eagle has landed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rocket going tranquility. We got here on the ground. You`ve got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We are breathing again.

Thanks a lot.

LISA: The anticipation of him touching that Moon. It was absolutely incredible. We were all guessing, what is the ground going to be like, is

he going to sink up to his knees?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The surface appears to be very, very fine grain. As you get close to it, it`s almost like a powder.

LISA: I felt a lot of pride that we`ve got there. The idea of helping humanity was the best thing I came at the program.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s one small step for man, but giant leap for mankind.


AZUZ: Time to take roll. Here are three schools we picked from Monday`s transcript page at cnnstudentnews.com. From Seneca High School, we are

being stock by the Bob Cats. Good to have you watching next door in Seneca, South Carolina. From Cleveland, Ohio, watch out for the hornets. They are

swarming at Cleveland School of Science and Medicine. And in Dubuque, Iowa, the Rams rock. We found them at Dubuque Senior High School.

Last story today includes a bit of a K9 conundrum. After leaving her toy outside, Lupa, Chihuahua and Dachshund mix watched a little ang (ph) rolly,

as a wild fox showed up to toy around with it. The dog didn`t mean to be sharing, but the Fox didn`t seem to be caring. At least the video from

Yukon, Canada, was shared. Almost 200,000 times on Facebook. You could say that fox was dogging her without foxing her, was toying with her

emotions. We could see why the dog was angry, but we still don`t know what the fox say. I`m Carl Azuz. This is CNN STUDENT NEWS. We`ll be back