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CNN 10
Terrorist Attacks Strike Afghanistan; The U.S. and Jordan Hold War Games; A Telecom Merger is Planned; A Positive Athlete Helps Students With Special Needs
Aired May 01, 2018 - 04:00 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, everyone. I`m Carl Azuz, welcoming our viewers worldwide to CNN 10.
Over the past few weeks, there`s been a series of terrorist attacks in the South Asian country of Afghanistan. We reported on a suicide bombing that
killed 57 people on April 22nd. Several other assaults carried out yesterday killed 31 more people, including ten journalists.
In one case, a blast went off in the Afghan capital of Kabul, afterward, when reporters and crew members had gone to the scene to cover it, an
attacker set off a second explosion that apparently targeted them. Several international news organizations paid tribute to the employees they lost in
the attacks.
The ISIS terrorist group, which has been active in Afghanistan, said it was responsible but it didn`t give any proof for that.
A separate explosion that happened hour after these in Kabul killed 11 people at a religious school and injured several Romanian soldiers. No one
claimed responsibility for that bombing.
U.S. Ambassador John Bass spoke out against the attack and said America stood with the Afghan people in their fight for peace and security across
Afghanistan.
ISIS, a group that threatens that peace, doesn`t operate only in Afghanistan. Its name is an acronym for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
That`s something it`s wanted to establish based on its extremist interpretation of Islam and though ISIS has been repeatedly defeated in
those two countries, losing much of its fighters and territory, other nations in the region are taking steps to defend themselves against the
terrorist.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is Eager Lion 2018, Jordanian-American war games in the desert.
(on camera): U.S. and Jordanian forces have been holding joint exercises like these for years. And during those years, the scenario was fairly
generic. With a passage of time however, the scenario they`re working on seems to look ever more like Syria.
(voice-over): The troops are simulating an assault on an imaginary refugee camp that has fallen under the control of extremists.
LT. GEN. MICHAEL GARRETT, U.S. ARMY CENTRAL COMMAND: Syria is, you know, on their border and Syria and the refugees are coming towards Jordan is a
concern.
WEDEMAN: This actual refugee camp, Rukban, sits on the Syrian side of the border with Jordan. In recent years, ISIS has targeted Jordanian forces
from Rukban, and officials here worry ISIS cells have multiplied there.
GEN. MOHAMMED AL-THALJ, DIRECTOR OF TRAINING JORDAN ARMY: We have in Jordan here, we have to be prepared to all scenarios actually, whether it`s
Rukban camp, whether it is another camp, whether it is a sudden, you know, influx of the Syrian, you know, refugees again from al Ghouta (ph), or
Damascus or from any other part of Syria into Jordan.
WEDEMAN: More than a million Syrians have fled to Jordan in the past seven years, putting strains on an already weak economy. Yet another source of
instability warns analyst Amer Alsabaileh.
AMER ALSABAILEH, ANALYST: I think Jordan might suffer from having bad economic conditions, which might turn to social process (ph) and that at
this stage, there`s a new strategy for terroristic group to seize any social process and trying to radicalize it.
WEDEMAN: And so, they`re also practicing for unrest sparked by the hypothetically intensification of U.S. strikes on Syria.
These aren`t real protesters, by the way, but rather Jordanian military personnel drafted to play the part.
Complete with a simulated evacuation of U.S. embassy staff were then flown to ships at Red Sea.
And no exercise with Syria in mind would be complete with a simulated chemical attack.
Training also focuses on the possible use of biological and nuclear weapons.
MAJOR GENERAL JON MOTT, U.S. ARMY CENTRAL COMMAND: Everything has to do with Syria and Iraq and the whole region, so it`s the culmination of all of
those things.
WEDEMAN: A culmination of an array of possibilities, none of them the last (ph) remote.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ (voice-over): Ten-second trivia:
What modern telecommunications company traces its roots back to the Brown Telephone Company?
Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile.
Brown Telephone founded in 1899 is a part of the history of Sprint Corporation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: That could include T-Mobile too, if the proposed $26 billion merger between Sprint and T-Mobile goes through. The companies say this would
make it easier for them to build a fifth generation network across America that`s better known as 5G. It would mean faster Internet speeds for mobile
devices like smart phones.
The merger would also help the new Sprint/T-Mobile company better compete with Verizon and AT&T who currently dominate the U.S. market. T-Mobile CEO
says the merger would create jobs and lower prices for consumers.
Some Wall Street analysts say it would have the opposite effects. Either way, it would reduce the number of wireless carriers in America. The new
company, Verizon, and AT&T would be the only three.
Major business mergers need U.S. government approval to go through, though. And that`s not a given. The Trump administration is currently suing to
block AT&T from buying Time Warner. That`s the parent company of CNN.
Up next, wrestling is one of the oldest known sports in the world. And Jay Pollock, who goes to Upper St. Clair High School in Pennsylvania, doesn`t
just excel at wrestling, he`s awfully good at helping others too. Jay is an example of a "Positive Athlete", a new series that shines a light on
high school students across American who are stand out people, as well as athletes.
CNN.com/PositiveAthlete is where you can nominate someone you know.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAY POLLOCK, POSITIVE ATHLETE: I started wrestling in second grade. I love the competitiveness. It`s you wrestling and whenever you have
success, it`s your success.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He`s just a positive person. He`s positive in school. I never hear him, you know, say anything negative about anybody.
POLLOCK: Outside of school, I`m really involved with the special needs programs. In our school, I`m involved in the Partners in P.E. program.
Partners in P.E. is a gym class every day of the first period, where we have students come in and participate in a gym class with the special needs
students just to kind of give them a since of inclusion.
I`m an Eagle Scout as well. My Eagle Scout project was running a stars tournament at our school, where we brought about 180 students with
disabilities from 12 different schools in the area.
We had a big soccer tournament and a bunch of soccer drills.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jay had, you know, he had to plan out the day.
What skills would they do, how long are they going to be at one station and how long do we rotate? He had to designate people to help. He had to
facilitate other students that were going to be in charge of this, which would be in charge of that. Jay was -- he was the one that made it all go.
POLLOCK: I feel I`m really in tone and really good with people with special needs and I`ve had a blast doing it. It`s made me a better person
for sure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`d be very proud of Jay of he were my son. He`s the kind of kid that you would hope that your kids grow up to be.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: California`s Pepperdine University has spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean and all that goes with it. Take these Pelicans for instance,
who decided that graduation was fit for the birds. No one knows exactly why they decided to descend upon the ceremony. They might have been hungry
and looking for handouts. But the fact that they arrived and refused to leave made the event unforgettable.
Maybe the crowd was all about pomp and circumstance, but when the pelicans arrived, you know there was something fishy going on. Why did they do it?
Because they pelican.
You know the other seabirds were herring about it, maybe thinking ibises been there if they were sea gullible enough to think dartering in would fit
the spoonbill. We have a feeling that pelicans have no egrets.
I`m Carl Azuz for CNN 10.
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