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A New U.S. Supreme Court Justice is Sworn In; Three ISS Workers Return to Earth; The "Retail Apocalypse"
Aired October 08, 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: This is CNN 10, your objective explanation of events happening worldwide. We hope you had a great weekend. I`m Carl
Azuz. Welcome to the show.
First up, an addition to the U.S. Supreme Court. Brett Kavanaugh, a federal appeals court, became a Supreme Court justice over the weekend
after senators voted 50 to 48 to confirm President Donald Trump`s nominee to the high court. The vote was mostly along party lines.
All but one Republican present voted for Justice Kavanaugh`s confirmation. All but one Democrat present voted against Justice Kavanaugh`s
confirmation. He was sworn in during a private ceremony, hours after Saturday`s final vote in the Senate.
There was controversy during Judge Kavanaugh`s confirmation hearings. On our September 28 show, which you can find in our archives at CNN10.com, we
covered testimony by Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, a professor who accused the Supreme Court nominee of having committed sexual assault when they were in
high school. We also covered Judge Kavanaugh`s testimony when he denied ever having committed sexual assault.
After that, President Trump ordered a supplemental FBI investigation into Judge Kavanaugh`s past. The results of that investigation were not made
public, but Republicans said it found no support for the accusations against Kavanaugh. While Democrats said the investigation was limited and
incomplete.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh replaces Justice Anthony Kennedy who retired from the Supreme Court this summer. Supreme Court justices hold office as long
as they choose.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ (voice-over): Ten-second trivia:
In 1957, what kind of animal became the first living creature to be launched into orbit?
Monkey, mouse, fruit fly, or dog?
Those who didn`t survive the trip, the first living animal launched into orbit was a dog from the Soviet Union.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Space explorations come a long way since then. And last Thursday, on the 61st anniversary of the launch of the first satellites by the Soviet
Union, two NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut arrived safely back on Planet Earth after having spent six months aboard the International Space
Station. Before they left, the astronaut who`d been in command of their mission handed over control to a member of the European Space Agency, who
stayed on the orbiting outpost.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DREW FEUSTEL, NASA ASTRONAUT: I hereby relinquish command of the International Space Station to you, Alex Gerst, of the European Space
Agency.
ALEX GERST, EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY: Thank you, Drew. I herewith accept command of the International Space Station expedition 57.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: The three returning space travelers came back to terra firma aboard the Soyuz, a Russian spacecraft that`s been in use for more than 50 years.
And though it looks like there`s a bit of an explosion just before it landed in Kazakhstan, you can see that right here, what you`re looking at
are the capsule`s landing rockets firing a second before touch down to soften the blow. The two astronauts and cosmonaut were picked up by
Russian search and recovery forces.
In December of 1969, when NASA was still planning moon missions, the U.S. unemployment rate was 3.7 percent. It wasn`t that low again until now.
Last Friday marked the first time since December of 1969 that the unemployment rate, the percentage of the American labor force that doesn`t
have a job was 3.7 percent.
That`s a good sign for the U.S. economy, but the store closings we`ve told you about in recent years, from reductions in Sears and Macy`s stores, to
the bankruptcy of Toys "R" Us, are not good signs.
What`s going on with U.S. retailers?
(BEGIN VIDEO LCIP)
PAUL R. LA MONICA, CNNMONEY CORRESPONDENT: The retail apocalypse.
Store closings, the death of the mall, the complete and total takeover of e-commerce, it`s the end of shopping as we know, right?
Well, not exactly. Yes, retailers had a tough few years. There were 7,000 store closings in 2017. We saw big brands like JCPenney, Macy`s and Sears
all shutter stores.
The term "retail apocalypse" is so pervasive that it even has its own Wikipedia page. But there`s another side to this story. In the same year,
there were actually 3,400 store opening announcements, a 50 percent surge according to Coresight Research, a retail think tank.
So, what`s the deal? Is there a retail apocalypse or not?
The answer lies somewhere in the middle, at the high and low ends of the retail spectrum, the industry is thriving. Low priced stores, the Old
Navys in the world, have seen their revenue steadily increase 37 percent over the last five years, and premium retailers, luxury stores like Coach
are faring even better. Their revenue skyrocketed 81 percent.
Those revenue increases led to store openings. And while many of the retail apocalypse headlines placed blame on e-commerce, a recent Deloitte
study found that 91 percent of retail sales still happen in brick and mortar stores.
So, if retail isn`t dying, it`s actually doing well, what`s going on with those stores in the middle? Well, you can track the decline of those
stores closely to the shrinking of the American middle class. The retailers hit hardest over the last few years have been big box and
department stores, stores that rely on the middle class suburban mall. And since 1975, the U.S. built malls at four times the rate of population
growth.
But over the last 10 years, most Americans have seen their discretionary funds stall or even shrink, and income has dwindled. Those consumers have
become more price sensitive, driving them to look for deals at low price stores. On the other hand, rich Americans have seen their net worth and
discretionary funds increased, creating more customers for luxury retailers. Meanwhile, stores in the middle like J. Crew, they`ve seen
their customers flee in both directions.
So, what we`re seeing is less of a retail apocalypse and more of tale of two retails.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: You`ve probably seen the range of ways in which dogs can help people from police dogs to working dogs to service dogs. There`s a company based
in Massachusetts, called Helping Hands, and it focuses on training and caring for service monkeys. In captivity, these animals can live for 35
years or longer, and can become an exceptional help to people with mobility impairments.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MEGAN TALBERT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HELPING HANDS: Monkeys definitely feed off of your feelings. They know when you`re feeling down or when you`re
feeling funny. It`s kind of an urban legend people out there training monkeys to help people with disabilities, but that really happens.
SUBTITLE: A Monkey`s Helping Hand.
NED SULLIVAN, RECIPIENT: I have my monkey Casey for 10 years. In 2005, I was in a car, and I injured C1, C2, the spinal cord with brain injury. I
couldn`t move but really anything at all. I couldn`t talk. You know, I come a long way.
TALBERT: Our goal is to train and place capuchin monkeys with people living with mobility impairments. The program got its start really as an
experiment to say, we can train a dog to help somebody who has visual impairment, perhaps we can train a primate to be the hands for somebody who
has had a spinal cord injury.
We provide our monkeys at no charge to our recipients.
All of our monkeys are born into our program. Typically, a monkey will spend about three to five years at the monkey college learning tasks,
whether that`s fetching, a phone or remote control off the floor.
Helping somebody get something to drink, even something as complicated as flipping the pages of a book, the monkeys do really act as hands and give
them that level of independence back.
You can imagine having a spinal cord injury and, all of a sudden, you have a monkey that`s sitting on your shoulder and you can finally feel that
touch. To have that monkey there is an incredible bonding experience.
SULLIVAN: When I couldn`t move, Casey`s done a lot for me. And now, it`s a lot of emotional support. Casey is part of my family. You know, this is
a five-pound animal that is extraordinarily helpful and brings joy to my life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: Most SUVs don`t sound like this. Most SUVs don`t look like this. Most aren`t yellow. Most aren`t built for a race track with a turbo-
charged V8 engine that makes 650 horsepower.
So, to sum up, most SUVs aren`t Lamborghinis. Though this model named the Urus is. And it has another unique feature that most SUVs don`t, a
$200,000 price tag.
So, it`s SUVery expensive and most people won`t have a Lamborghineed for it. But if a Jaguar doesn`t set the right F-PACE for you, and you Cayenne
afford a Porsche, but Macan`t bring yourself to buy one, maybe the Urus with the pedal to the floorus, and the power that`s morus is the right car
for yous.
I`m Carl Azurus for CNN 10.
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