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Severe Weather In Alabama; International Update On COVID Responses; Study On Dog Migration; The Legacy Of U.S. "First Pets." Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired January 27, 2021 - 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: Welcome to CNN 10 on this Wednesday, January 27th. I`m Carl Azuz. Thank you for taking 10 minutes for us. Severe weather
in the American southeast leads off today`s show. As we put this program together, a search and rescue operation was underway in the U.S. state of
Alabama.
On Monday night, a deadly storm tore through the town of Fultondale, a northern suburb of Birmingham. It killed at least one person and injured
dozens of others. Fultondale`s fire chief said 17 people there were taken to the emergency room for different injuries and some of those are
critical. One witness told AL.com that it looked like a bomb had gone off in the town of 9,000 people causing serious damage to almost all of the
homes there.
One county official said there wasn`t much warning. The storm spawned a tornado described as large and extremely dangerous. It ripped up a hotel,
tore off part of a church`s roof, struck a high school, damaged or destroyed homes and businesses and scattered power lines and debris across
the roads.
The mayor of Center Point, another Birmingham suburb, reported quite a bit of damage in his city of 16,000 people and while he said that Tuesday would
be a long day of assessing damage and covering up places where walls, roots or windows were missing.
He was grateful that there were no injuries in Center Point. Schools were closed in the region. Survivors said they were grateful to be alive and
that the community was pulling together to help one another. The storm system prompted tornado watches and warnings in Alabama and Georgia as it
made its way across the region. And as it turned north, it was expected to bring heavy snow to the Mid-Atlantic coast on Tuesday night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When severe weather strikes, one of the most common questions we get, what`s the difference between a watch and a warning?
Well, just for comparison sake let`s take this stoplight. Green light, yellow light, red light.
Sometimes the National Weather Service will issue a hazardous weather outlook, an advisory, treat this as a green light. Know that the
possibility of rough weather is there but go about your day as you would, just stay alert. But as conditions tend to ripen, we may see a tornado
watch issued by the National Weather Service.
Use this with more caution, this means conditions are favorable for tornado development and so you need to know what you should do in case a tornado
strikes. That`s where the warning comes in. If the radar has indicated a tornado or someone has spotted a tornado in progress, that`s when a tornado
warning is issued and you should get to your safe place immediately. Stop what you`re doing and seek shelter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I`m Matt Rivers in Manaus, Brazil. A city in the middle of the Amazon rainforest where the health system has all but
collapsed due to a particularly brutal second wave of COVID-19 going on right now. As a result, the local government has imposed a seven-day
lockdown banning all essential activity which is why streets like this one behind me normally quite crowded are now quite empty. And this comes at a
particularly fraught time for Brazil overall which in recent days has seen some of its highest daily death counts from the coronavirus since the
pandemic began.
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I`m Salma Abdelaziz in London. Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said this is not the moment to ease
restrictions. His comments came after new data showed that infection rates are beginning to slow but the key indicators are still very poor.
Hospitalization rates are high.
There`s more people on ventilators now than there were during the first wave of the pandemic. The (inaudible) are concerned about variants around
the world. That`s why hotel quarantines are being considered by officials and of course, the vaccination program. Millions more people need to be
vaccinated before these restrictions can be lifted.
CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I`m Cyril Vanier in Paris. European countries are furious at pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca after it
announced that it would be delivering far fewer doses of its vaccine to the EU than expected. Delaying its rollout until the end of March.
The European Health Commissioner says drug makers working on the continent will know have to notify the block before exporting vaccines out of Europe.
The EU had preordered and pre-financed 400 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine which is expected to be approved by the European Medicines Agency
here on Friday.
DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I`m Dave McKenzie in Johannesburg. Dr. Anthony Fauci says that vaccines in the current form should be effective
against variants discovered of COVID-19 here in South Africa and the UK. Now that good news is backed up by Moderna.
Though they say their vaccine could be slightly less effective against the South African variant and they are developing a booster shot. Now despite
this good news, President Biden has extended the travel restrictions to the U.S. to include South Africa which has been dealing with a dramatic second
wave pushed by this more transmissible variant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. Which of these dog breeds is believed to be the oldest? Afghan Hound, Alaskan Malamute, Border Collie or Chihuahua. Many
scientists believe the Afghan Hound originated in Afghanistan in around 6,000 B.C. making it the oldest breed on this list.
There`s widespread disagreement over what the oldest breed in the world is. Some scientists say it`s the Akita Inu, the Basenji or the Chinese Saluki
and while the relationship between people and dogs is known to go back thousands of years. Researchers don`t know exactly when or why dogs became
domesticated as man`s best friend. But there are some new theories about this and a related study was just published in the "Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences".
What researchers did was compare genetic information gathered from ancient human remains with the info gathered from ancient dog remains. They say
that some of the dogs found in the Americas have lineage that could be traced back to ancient Siberian dogs.
So from that, they concluded that when people migrated from Northeast Asia to the Americas, the dogs came with them. Scientists believe this happened
more than 15,000 years ago over the Bering Land Bridge which no longer exists. The study lead author theorized that the dogs could have helped the
people carry their goods faster and she suggested that people and dogs might have gotten together in the first place when humans allowed wolves to
eat whatever food people threw away.
There`s no definitive proof of this but researchers are hoping the search for older dog bones in the region of Siberia to get more evidence. So I
guess you could say that some scientific studies have gone to the dogs.
Hey, speaking of dogs. It`s America`s first dogs that are the subject of our last story today. Champ and Major have arrived at the White House.
They`re the canine best friends of President Joe Biden. Former President Donald Trump didn`t have pets at the White House during his term.
He was the first president since Andrew Johnson not to. Former President Barak Obama got Beau during his first time and Sunny came along four years
later. And former President George W. Bush had Barney, Miss Beasley and a cat named India. The truth is cats and dogs haven`t been the only pets at
the president`s residence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Calvin Coolidge also had quite the menagerie. A bobcat, a pigmy hippo named Billy, lion cubs and even a raccoon. William
Taft had a cow named Pauline. The last cow to graze on the White House lawn. You could say President Theodore Roosevelt had a zoo of sorts at his
White House. Parrots, bears, zebras and yes, a one-legged chicken but dogs have certainly been the most popular.
President Warren G. Harding`s dog Laddie Boy was the first "first dog" to be regularly covered in the national press. Herbert Hoover had a dog he
called King Tut. Franklin D. Roosevelt`s Scottish terrier was named Fala.
A statue of Fala is featured beside Roosevelt in the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C. The only presidential pet with such
an honor. George W. Bush had Barney. Bill Clinton, Buddy. Gerald Ford had a Golden Retriever named Liberty. Lyndon Johnson brought beagles named Him
and Her to the White House. JFK had a dog named Pushinka, a gift from the Soviet premier.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: So it seems that many American leaders had "pet" projects. Animals that were "cat-apulted" into the national spotlight. Companions that helped
"menagerease" the pressures of office when their masters got "dog" tired. Some cats with nine lives got to spend one in the first house and even if
all dogs go to heaven, who would have thought some would go from the dog house to the White House.
It`s "puppy food" for thought ya`ll. Our newest shout out school is in the state of New Hampshire. Groveton High School is in the community of
Groveton. It`s great to see you guys. There is only one way to get your school mentioned on our show. Please subscribe to YouTube.com/CNN10 and
leave a comment on our most recent show there. I`m Carl Azuz.
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