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CNN 10
Bipartisan Budget Compromise; Potential Executive Action By President Trump; Upcoming Election in Nigeria; Amazon Scrapping Headquarters Plan for New York City; End of the Opportunity`s Mars Mission; "The Mona Lisa of Baseball Cards"
Aired February 15, 2019 - 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: I`m Carl Azuz. Fridays are awesome. This is CNN 10 and here`s a down the middle explanation of what`s going on today.
Starting in the U.S. Capitol, it looks like another partial shutdown of the American government won`t happen at least for the time being. Congress and
the president have come to an agreement on how to fund the government in the days ahead which prevents the partial shutdown. The one that took
place in December and January happened because Democrats and Republicans were divided over government spending on a wall or barrier between the U.S.
and Mexico.
President Donald Trump who`s said for years that a wall is necessary to better protect America insisted that Congress approve $5.7 billion to pay
for it. Democrats have called a wall expensive and unnecessary and they insisted they would not approve the funding. In the weeks since the
shutdown ended, lawmakers from both parties have been trying to work out a compromise on government funding. What they came up with includes more
than $1.3 billion to build new barriers on the border and last night the White House said President Trump would sign the legislation. Because it
falls well short of the $5.7 billion he wanted though, the White House said the president would declare a separate national emergency to secure the
funding for the border.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says declaring a national emergency would be a lawless act. The White House says it`s prepared for any legal
challenges to the declaration so more partisan fighting could like ahead and when we produced this show, nothing had been finalized. Though the
House and Senate were rushing to get the compromised funding package approved.
Crossing the Atlantic, we`re taking you to Nigeria, a west African country that is gearing up for a major presidential election this Saturday. We say
major because the country has both great importance to Africa and great struggles to overcome. Nigeria is official a federal presidential
republic. It`s the largest democracy and economy on the African continent but according to the Brookings Institution, the U.S. based research group,
Nigeria also has the world`s highest number of people living in extreme poverty.
It passed India in that ranking just last year. Nigeria`s also struggled with violence, terrorism and corruption and there are concerns about
potential violence damaging this election. Those it`s votes have smoothed out since 2007. The world will be watching when Nigerians go to the polls
on the 16th.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nigeria is often described as a giant of Africa is the largest economy, the largest oil producer and the most populous country in
the continent. All this should mean that life is good for Nigerians right? Well not quite, the constant complaint from citizens is that the country`s
wealth just does not trickle down to the average (inaudible) woman who are struggling to make ends meet. To make matters worse, Nigeria is now the
country with the most extremely poor people in the world.
According to the Well Poverty Clock, they are now 87 million Nigerians living in extreme poverty which means they are surviving on less than $2 a
day. How did it all go wrong? The simple answer is that Nigeria`s oil wealth has been squandered, stolen and grossly mismanaged through
corruption and sheer incompetence. There`s also been an overdependence of oil revenues which once traded at $100 a barrel and crashed to $40 at isn`t
lowest price. Nigeria failed to make hay while the sun was shining and as oil prices fell, revenues dwindled.
Success of government has promised to diverse by the economy into other areas but those indices have not really materialized and revenue is still
largely dependent on oil. Nigeria may be the biggest economy on the continent but it`s in crisis with high levels of debt and massive
overspending that analysts say is not just sustainable. With an estimated 190 million inhabitants, Nigeria is also facing a population explosion and
has been projected to overtake the U.S. to become the world`s third most populous country by 2050.
This population boom brings with it a ticking time bomb of unemployment and poverty especially among those who are under 25. They make up more than 60
percent of society, one of the largest youth populations in the world. The lack of infrastructure, poor living conditions, inequality and lack of jobs
has led to many frustrations among this demographic and they are clambering for real change. When President Buhari, a former military ruler was
elected in 2015 it was the first peaceful transition of power in the country. He promised to be a new broom offering a clean sweep of the old
routine, but many have been left disillusioned and angry of the rising levels of inequality, lack of opportunities and extreme poverty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARL AZUZ: The technology company Amazon has cancelled plans to build part of a second headquarters in New York City. It`s main campus is in Seattle,
Washington. About a year and a half ago, Amazon announced it would build a second headquarters and more than 230 cities joined a competition to be the
site of it. New York City and Crystal City, Virginia were two of them combined they offered Amazon $2.8 billion worth of incentives. Benefits
like tax breaks and they became the two places Amazon chose for it`s second headquarters. Amazon was expected to eventually bring 25,000 high paying
jobs to each city and 10`s of billions of dollars in new tax revenue but protests started in New York.
Residents didn`t like their current tax dollars being spent to attract Amazon and some are concerned that home prices would rise making them too
expensive for people who already live there. Amazon and several New York politicians blamed each other for the reasons why the project was
cancelled. The company says it won`t reopen its search for another campus right now but the governor of New Jersey says his state`s open for
business.
10 Second Trivia. Which of these NASA missions to Mars was launched in 2003? Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, Mars Exploration Rovers, Mars Science
Laboratory, or MAVEN. The only one of these missions launched that year was that of the Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity.
The time for Opportunity on Mars is over but before that`s taken out of context we`re talking about a rover that`s named Opportunity. It was
launched in July of 2003. It landed on the red planet in early 2004. It was part of a $1 billion mission that included the other rover named
Spirit. That machine got stuck in the sand in 2011 and eventually stopped communicating with NASA. Opportunity lasted until last June when it`s
communication systems also went down. NASA`s tried to contact it hundreds of times but after the space agency`s latest attempt wasn`t answered on
Tuesday night, it said Opportunity`s mission was official over.
Both rovers worked much longer than the 90 days their mission had them officially listed for. Scientists say Opportunity traveled 28 miles over
the rocky, sandy surface of Mars and took more than 200,000 pictures. They say it also found evidence that suggests ancient Mars once had liquid water
on it. Even without Opportunity, NASA has several other active missions around Mars. One of them is $2.5 billion Curiosity mission who`s rover
continues to roam the red planet.
A life long baseball card collector recently visited a shop in Nevada and saw this. It`s a 1921 Babe Ruth card. It was listed for $8 but because
the shop owner thought it was a fake he sold it for $2. Turns out it wasn`t a fake. It`s apparently one of the rarest baseball cards on the
planet and the collector says he`s gotten three multi million dollar offers for it. He says he doesn`t want to sell it but that he will give more
money to the shop owner.
Now some may say the collector "Sultan of Swatareyouwatingfor" don`t you "Bambiknow" that card is a "colossus of clout"? Could give a big "bam" to
your bank account? But we can`t rush to judge, that would be a "bahemoth" of bust in a pretty "ruth"thing to do anyway. Yes. Babe Ruth pun. You
know they`re a "hit". CNN 10 will be back next Tuesday. We`re off Monday for the President`s Day holiday. We`ll see you right here on the 19th.
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