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CNN 10
A Shooting In Buffalo, New York Appears To Be A Hate Crime; Crypto Markets Tank, An Eclipse Reveals A "Super Flower Blood Moon". Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired May 16, 2022 - 04:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: With two weeks left to go in our spring broadcasting season, we`re happy to have you watching our show. I`m Carl
Azuz.
In the city of Buffalo, New York, local and federal investigators are searching for answers after an unprovoked act of violence was carried out
on Saturday. Police say an 18-year old suspect drove to Buffalo from another area that`s hours away. After Payton Gendron arrived at a
supermarket, he`s accused of shooting several people in the parking lot before moving inside the store and attacking more there.
Buffalo`s police commissioner says the suspect was heavily armed and wearing body armor, which is why he wasn`t stopped when a security guard
shot him. The security guard was a retired police officer and one of people who were killed in the shooting. Three others were injured in the attack
but they`re expected to survive.
After police arrived, they say the suspect eventually dropped his gun and surrendered he has pleaded not guilty to the initial charge of first-degree
murder. Why did he allegedly do this?
One thing investigators are looking at is a manifesto, a public declaration of views that was reportedly posted online under the name of the suspect.
The manifesto`s author claimed to be a white supremacist and spoke out against Jews and other races. Of the 13 people who were shot, 11 were
African-American and two were white, according to police. Authorities are calling the attack a hate crime, an act that can be motivated by racism.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN C. GARCIA, ERIE COUNTY SHERIFF: It was straight up racially motivated hate crime, from somebody outside of our community, outside of the city of
good neighbors as the mayor said, coming into our community and trying to inflict that evil upon us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Prosecutors are expected to announce more charges against the suspect. Also, as we produced today`s show, we were getting reports of
another separate attack at a church in Laguna Hills, California, where at least five people were shot on Sunday. CNN.com will have the latest
information on that.
Our second story today follows up on something we reported on Wednesday concerning the rise and fall of bitcoin. The cryptocurrency`s recent rise
was last autumn when the value of one bitcoin was close to seventy thousand dollars. The fall was last week when that value dropped to below thirty
thousand dollars. What it`ll do in the months ahead is anyone`s guess.
Some experts say one bitcoin could still be worth a hundred thousand dollars or more by year`s end. But others say bitcoin and crypto in general
could go the other direction altogether.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BORIS SANCHEZ, NEW DAY WEEKEND ANCHOR (voiceover): It`s touted as nearly impossible to counterfeit, fast to transfer, keeping users anonymous, and
not beholden to any central bank. The appeal of cryptocurrency has led to skyrocketing value. Its market cap peaking at $3 trillion before recently
dropping to $1.2 trillion.
ELON MUSK, CEO, TESLA: Well, it`s a future of currency. It`s an unstoppable financial vehicle that`s going to take over the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I get that, but what is it, man?
SANCHEZ: Made possible by Blockchain technology, the most popular cryptocurrencies are virtually mined. Sophisticated software crunching
complex, computational math problems with the first to find a solution winning a block of digital coins which users can then sell.
Boosted by an unprecedented level of easy money in low-interest rates and stimulus spending, cryptocurrencies soared the last couple of years.
FRANCIS SUAREZ, MAYOR OF MIAMI: And it`s already changed the way our system works.
SANCHEZ: Investors, entrepreneurs, and even governments bought in. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez pushing to make the city the U.S. crypto capital. And
El Salvador adopting Bitcoin as an official currency.
NAYIB BUKELE, PRESIDENT, EL SALVADOR: In El Salvador, we are trying to rescue this idea and it started to sign up our country for the future.
SANCHEZ: But the mining process consumes tons of energy which presents serious environmental concerns. The anonymity also invites crime. Crypto
has been used for everything from buying illicit drugs to paying off hackers and ransomware attacks. Critics also charged that crypto scams are
rampant.
The mania has led to instability. Prices spiking and crashing, and in the last month alone, close to a trillion dollars` worth of value has been
lost.
Given the extreme volatility in cryptocurrency markets, a newer kind of coin has become increasingly popular. Stable coins like Tether are backed
by hard assets, things like bonds. They allow users of Tether to exchange one coin for one U.S. dollar at any given time.
Similarly, algorithmic stable coins, like TerraUSD are not backed by hard assets, but a nebulous term called financial engineering that ties it to
the U.S. dollar. That financial engineering has recently spooked investors. And over the last few days, both of these coins have faltered.
Tether, the world`s largest stable coin, broke its peg from the U.S. dollar before rebounding. And TerraUSD fell into a death spiral dropping to just
16 cents as of Saturday. Terra`s sister coin Luna also lost more than 90 percent of its value in just 24 hours.
ETHAN WU, FINANCIAL TIMES: They`re built on these quite complicated mechanisms that rely on people trusting the system. And as soon as trust
evaporates, the entire thing can collapse.
SANCHEZ: The drop triggering a panic with a recent report indicating that regulators at the Federal Reserve are concerned little oversight could doom
confidence in the entire digital economy.
WU: I think right now is the kind of pivotal testimony for crypto to either prove the doubters wrong that there is something new, different, and
valuable here, or I think the entire industry will start to look like a very bizarre sideshow that people should ignore.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ (voice-over): Ten-second trivia:
What is the popular term for the second full moon in a calendar month?
Red moon, blood moon, blue moon, or harvest moon?
The phrase "once in a blue moon" can refer to the second full moon in a month.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: But it`s a moon of a red shade that stargazers across the Americas were looking up for on Sunday night the total lunar eclipse was also at
least partly visible in Africa Europe and some Pacific nations.
It was called the "super flower blood moon" and here`s what all that means: a super moon might appear to be bigger and brighter than a normal full
moon, because it occurs when the moon is closer in its elliptical orbit of earth. It was there at perigee on Sunday night. Flower because as the old
farmer`s almanac says this is the time of year when flowers bloom in the northern hemisphere. And blood is the result of the moon`s reddish shade
during a total lunar eclipse.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A lunar eclipse is when the moon passes through the earth`s shadow this only occurs during a full moon.
Two factors decide which of three possible eclipses the moon will experience: the tilt of the moon`s orbit around the earth, and which of the
earth`s two shadows the moon falls behind. The earth`s darker inner shadow is known as the umbra and the lighter outer one is called the penumbra.
The penumbral eclipse is when the moon passes through -- you guessed it -- just the penumbra. NASA says this type of eclipse is so subtle that if you
didn`t know it was happening, you might not even notice it.
A partial eclipse is when the moon only gets covered by part of the earth`s umbra, so only part of it is shaded in darkness by the earth. A partial
eclipse happens at least twice a year.
And then there`s the big one, the total lunar eclipse. These are rare, often separated by years, and require the moon, earth and sun to be in
perfect alignment. But don`t think this blacks out the moon, as the moon shifts deeper into the umbra, it takes on a red hue which is sometimes
called a blood moon.
The moon turns red because the atmosphere is filtering out color at the opposite end of the visible spectrum, the blue light. The short wavelengths
of blue don`t travel as far as the long red wavelengths so they scatter before reaching our eyes, leaving behind the red glow.
Not everyone on earth can see a lunar eclipse at the same time. You`ll need to be in an area facing the moon during the moments it`s shaded by earth.
Unlike a solar eclipse, you don`t need any special equipment to enjoy a lunar eclipse. They`re safe to watch at any stage, although a pair of
binoculars might make it more fun.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: If you`re a millionaire and you like spending your money on skeletons, and who doesn`t, all this could have been yours. The Christie`s
Auction House just sold off a velociraptor, at least some of the bones of one, for almost $12.5 million. That`s almost twice what they thought it`d
go for. Christie says 126 of these bones are real, the rest had to be fabricated, including most of the head according to "The New York Times".
Now some would call $12.5 million outrageous, but others would call it cretaceous. And a Mesostoic investor who`s not dino-soured on the market
might think nothing of digging up monstrous amounts of money to Triassic his claw and managing a skeleton of ancient history as long as it had good
bones.
We are shouting out the Roughriders today. We`re talking about you, the students of Red River High School in Grand Forks, North Dakota, for CNN 10.
I`m Carl Azuz.
END
