A Tragedy In Texas; Goods Shortages In Cuba And Sri Lanka; The U.S. Primary Season; A Mountain Climbing Record. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired May 25, 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: Hi. I`m Carl Azuz, for CNN 10.
We had some tragic news coming out of the U.S. state of Texas as we produced today`s show. There was a shooting Tuesday in the city of Uvalde.
It happened at an elementary school.
Officials say at least students and two adults were killed and that the suspected shooter is also dead. Several others were treated at a local
hospital. We didn`t know how many when we produced this show.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott called on people to show unwavering support for those who were suffering and U.S. President Joe Biden was scheduled to
address the nation last night.
CNN.com will have updated information on all of this.
Next, we`re taking you to two island countries on opposite sides of the northern hemisphere. Tens of thousands of Cubans are leaving their nation.
It`s currently dealing with runaway inflation, prices around 70 percent higher at the end of last year than they were the year before. And the
communist country is seeing its worst shortages of food and medicine in decades.
The COVID pandemic hurt Cuba`s tourism industry. The country`s getting less oil from its ally Venezuela, which is having trouble producing enough oil
for itself, and for years, the U.S. has imposed sanctions, economic penalties on Cuba to pressure its government to make changes.
As Cubans protested last year over shortages power outages and a lack of freedoms, their government blamed the United States for trying to overturn
Cuba`s communist rule.
But critics of Cuba`s leaders say they try to take advantage of their country`s economic problems and exodus of migrants to pressure the U.S.
government. American officials say the number of Cubans trying to enter the U.S. is increasing exponentially.
Meanwhile the island nation of Sri Lanka is also dealing with shortages of fuel and food. The inflation rate in this presidential republic is more
than 33 percent higher than it was last year at this time.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VEDIKA SUD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you drive through Sri Lanka`s capital Colombo, you`ll spot hundreds of people standing in multiple queues hoping
to take home fuel and gas from collection points. For months, there`s been an acute shortage of essential commodities. In a new low for the country,
Sri Lanka defaulted on its debts Thursday.
We speak to people in Colombo about the impact the country`s worst economic crisis has had on their lives.
Thirty-six-year-old Thuban (ph), an auto rickshaw driver, has spent two nights at this gas station in central Colombo. It`s been an endless way to
refuel his three-wheeler. Petrol pumps are all but dry across the city.
About five kilometers or three miles away from Thuban`s home, Sagarika Samanthi (ph) can barely sit in this 30-inch-wide balcony where she cooks
the day`s meals. She uses coconut husk paper and kerosene to get the firewood stove started.
FATHIMA HAMEED, COLOMBO RESIDENT (through translator): Since the 30th of April, there`s been no cooking gas. We`re now using a firewood stove.
SUD: Earlier,Sagarika would cook three meals a day on a gas stove. It`s now down to one.
Weeks of protests forced all the Rajapaksas except the president to step down from senior government posts. On Monday, Sri Lanka`s new prime
minister Wickremesinghe warned that things will only get worse before getting any better. Four days later, and for the first time in its history,
the country defaulted on its debt.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ (voice-over): Ten-second trivia:
What U.S. state traditionally holds the first primary or caucus in a presidential election year?
New Hampshire, Iowa, Washington, or Virginia?
Every four years, Iowa usually holds the first caucus in the nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Though this isn`t a presidential election year in America, primaries have still been going on starting on the first Tuesday of this month and
what they do is determine which candidates appear on the ballots this November.
It`s a midterm election year. Americans will be choosing all 435 voting members of the U.S. House of Representatives. They`ll be deciding on 34
seats in the 100-member Senate. They`ll be picking governors in 36 states and a slew of politicians for state and local races will also be on the
ballots in the midterm elections.
In the primaries, voters can whittle down a list of candidates who are running. For example, if several Republicans or several Democrats are all
trying to win the same seat, a primary in the spring can decide which one candidate from each party gets on the ballot in the fall.
There`s a lot at stake in the midterms. Control of Congress is one of the biggest headlines. So, the election season that`s in full swing now will
decide the House and Senate makeup until at least the next election in two years.
Next, we`re going to the Himalayas. Himlung Himal is a mountain in Nepal. It`s more than 2,300 feet above sea level. That makes it thousands of feet
higher than Mount Kilimanjaro or Mount Rainier, and a record was recently achieved on Himlung Himal by a climber with a spinal cord injury, even
though his team didn`t reach its summit.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUBTITLE: Ed Jackson just broke the highest vertical ascent record by someone with a spinal cord injury. Jackson achieved the feat on Himlung
Himal, a Himalayan mountain reaching 7,126 meters.
Jackson was a professional rugby player but broke his neck diving into a swimming pool in 2017.
ED JACKSON, CLIMBING RECORD HOLDER: It rendered me completely paralyzed from the shoulders down and I had no movement or sensation returned for
quite a long time for well over a week, and I was told that I was never going to walk again. But I got very lucky and there was enough of my spinal
cord still attached that I started to make a recovery. Andt the 12-month mark, I wanted to set myself a challenge I knew that. If I put a goal in
place, then hopefully, I`d be able to keep motivated to do my rehab.
SUBTITLE: Jackson is paralyzed in four limbs, but he didn`t let this stop his climbing quest.
JACKSON: I said I wanted to climb Snowdon but I was still using two crutches and still very much disabled that it posed a big enough challenge
and I opened it up to anyone who wanted to come and join in. I`m expecting just a few people to turn up but there are 70 people on the start line who
I didn`t even know who`d come for their own different reasons.
SUBTITLE: His mountaineering dreams reached new heights, as he sets his sights on conquering Himlung Himal.
JACKSON: I kind of got hooked on mountains after that. I was just looking for the next highest one and the next highest one and, yeah, four years
later, I find myself in the Himalayas. We had to get to over 6,500 meters and we spent two weeks actually on the mountain itself, in the most sort of
remote places you could imagine. No electricity. Like, one day, we had leftovers of a yak that had been killed by a snow leopard.
SUBTITLE: But as they neared Himlung Himal`s summit, disaster struck.
JACKSON: We got to about 6,800 meters which is obviously a new record, but we had to turn around to come back. And by the time we got back down the
snow conditions had changed our guide fell through a crevasse, so then we called for a helicopter rescue and the helicopters can`t fly at night in
Nepal because they can`t fly above the height of the mountain. So, we called them at 6:00 p.m. and they said sorry, you`re going to have to --
you have to wait until morning.
So, we basically had to dig in and survive a night on the mountain anywhere between minus 20 and minus 30 degrees without tents, without having eaten
or drank for nearly 24 hours. It`s one of those things that you wouldn`t choose to repeat but don`t regret.
SUBTITLE: His accident and discovery of mountaineering have powerfully shaped his outlook.
JACKSON: Just being outside in nature I think is incredibly rewarding, incredibly healing. I`ve found that it`s helped me recover mentally and
deal with the change that I`ve gone through. I was resuscitated three times. You know, I died three times in the ambulance after my accident.
And I think realizing how short life can be is obviously going to give you a big perspective shift. It makes you think about what`s important in your
life.
And I also realized that I was very lucky to have the support network I had. So, I wanted to recreate that for other people and people who`d been
through trauma.
SUBTITLE: With his wife, Lois, and friend, Olly Barkley, Jackson co- founded Millimetres 2 Mountains. The charity supports people facing mental health challenges by giving them access to the outdoors.
JACKSON: We take people on challenges all over the world. So, this year, we`re going to Morocco, Iceland, Nepal, and then we put in a three-year
development program which funds life-coaching retraining therapy.
I hope through what I`m doing and what we`re doing with the charity and what our beneficiaries are proving can give anyone the hope that they can
turn their life around, no matter how bleak it might seem in that moment.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: Ding, dong. It`s delivery. With a lesson about kids and smartphones, a mom in Texas thought her phone was locked that if her two-year-old son
was doing anything on it, he`d be taking pictures. Wrong. He was placing an order for cheeseburgers, 31 of them, and with the $16 tip he added, the
total came to more than $91.
The little guy ate half a burger, leaving mom with an expensive but good story and 30-1/2 cheeseburgers to give away.
Let us look at this medium rare event pragmatically. When you catch up with the boy, you can`t have beef with the plan the unyoung one cooked up. Oh,
yes, he might have mustered an order that cost a lot of bread, leaving his mom in a pickle. But once everything was said and well done, it was all bun
intentional.
Today`s shout-out takes us to Naples, Maine. It is great to see the students and teachers of Lake Region Middle School watching today. I`m Carl
Azuz.
END
