tv CNN Newsroom CNN August 11, 2011 10:00am-12:00pm PDT
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signatucarries risks. brian todd, cnn, washington. >> if your choice did not win or want to check out the runners up, i will have links on my pace book.com/suzannecnn. today we are going through the right direction. the dow is up right now. about 385 points following yesterday's selloff, which followed a rally, which followed a selloff. consider this, at some point in each of the past three days, the dow has soared or plunged more than 5%. that happened only once in all of 2010. and so here is alison kosik in all of the turmoil. what is happening there? what gives? >> the dow is holding its gains
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up right now, and that's a good sign considering we're more than halfway through the trading day. you are seeing stocks rally on good economic news of the jobless claims numbers fell last week and we got strong corporate earnings from a bellwether company, cisco system, and you are seeing wall street focus on the positive today and we are seeing the bargain hunting going on as well, and you are seeing the bargain hunters getting in there and buying stocks up, randi. >> and the trader mthere with you, allen valdez. what about the first time they dropped below 4,000 for the first time in four weeks, and how much do you think that contributed to the rally we are seeing today? >> well, under 400,000 -- you know, that jobs number is probably the most important number for traders. it really is. we watch that number on a weekly basis. and this economy is powered by consumer spending, so if the consumer is not working he is
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not spending. anything under 400,000, they're not spending. >> let's look at the key factor playing a role in the volatility. one of them is fear. small investors are pulling money out of mutual funds for the 15 weeks now in a row. how much do you think that is contributing? >> oh, it's contributing quite a bit. that's why we have seen the kind of selloff that we have seen in the past 11 sessions. you are seeing investors come back, and we know this because we are seeing bond yields rise and gold prices drop, so you are seeing investors put their money slowly back into stocks. don't you think, allen? >> no question, you are 100% right on that question. in the last four weeks, the markets lost $2.9 trillion, so they are nervous but coming back into the market. >> do you think we're in the clear today? >> i think today we could be in the clear, but this market can turn around on a dime. but, you know, it's the trend
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we're looking at. right now, even though the trend is down, if your timeframe is out there for a long lull, it's great bargaining and opportunities here, and if you are young, you want to be buying stocks. >> another key factor we're looking at is europe. how much is that playing a role in the volatility? >> yeah, europe is our biggest trading partner. we're watching it close. yesterday we had the news out of the bank. and it was going to have a tough time, and they denied that and then retracted their statement. things are looking better in europe. it's a bigger problem than here in the united states. >> i think you will see the european debt issues continue to weigh on the markets, and they are not the focus today but i think you will see them continue to weigh in the coming days and months. >> the political gridlock is weighing in on the markets, and the s&p did not like what they saw in washington.
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>> that's what really set off the selloff. you look at the timing of it. the debt ceiling agreement, you know, it was signed on the dotted line there, and then of course you had wall street react, maybe a bit of delay, but that set off the selloff, don't you? >> we have clients calling and they feel that there is no leadership, not only here but around the world. we are devoid of any strong leadership anywhere, especially in the g-7 countries. >> computer trading, and we understand 77% of stock trades are electronic, and so when you talk about fear in the market, computers don't know about fear, they can't judge fear. it seems to contradict the fear factor? >> well, you know, you are 100% right. computers have no fear. 70% of those trades are held for under three minutes mostly. what it is, these programs are programmed such they run off
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news events or run off just points in the s&p. so what gets the s&p going, it's regular selling and then the computers kick in and you see the wild fluctuations, once they hit certain buyer sell points in the s&p. >> you see the average american looking at the jaw-dropping drops in the major averages, and then you see the average american jumping in and selling their investments, because it's a scary thing to see, 100-point drops in a matter of minutes. >> you want to back off and not watch things and take your time and then get back in. >> definitely not the time to panic. >> you say it's not a time to panic. in the next few days or tomorrow, what do you think we can expect? will it be an eb exciting friday? >> it will be a busy friday. that's for sure.
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we get a consumer spending number. that's a big number. this country is powered by consumer spending. that will set the tone for the weekend for sure. >> we will be watching, randi. >> thank you both for joining us. checking other top stories we're following right now, house democratic leader, nancy pelosi, named the finally members on the committee for deficit reduction. joining the nine are james clyburn, becerra, and van hollen. republican leaders previously named fiscal conservatives for their six picks to the super committee charged with crafting a plan to reduce the nation's mounting deficits. the war in afghanistan claimed more americans lives. five u.s. troops were killed by
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a roadside bomb in southern afghanistan. the attack comes less than a week after 30 american troops were killed when their helicopter was shot down by the taliban in central afghanistan. that attack was the deadliest involving u.s. troops in the afghan war talk about fast. the u.s. military tested an experimental aircraft designed to fly at 13,000 miles an hour and reach any target in the world in less than an hour. the high-teched unman slider separated at the edge of space from a booster before contact was lost. no update since then. the military's goal is to develop technology to respond to threats around the world at more than five times the speed of sound. there's new information this hour on the three siblings wanted for bank robbery and attempted murder in georgia and florida. lee grace doherty tried to reload her automatic pistol before a police officer shot her in the leg yesterday. they were caught after a
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high-speed police chase that ended in a crash. she is due to appear in a court today along with her brother and half brother. an eerie quiet overnight in london. a surprising profile is emerging of some of the alleged rioters. we will have a live report right after this. and natural minerals. give you sheer coverage instantly, then go on to even skin tone in four weeks. aveeno tinted moisturizers. energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy developement comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing decades of cleaner burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self contained well systems and using state of the art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe
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that we have been seeing in the last few weeks, are we? >> fasten your seat belts, and keep your tray tables in the up right and stowed position is the advice for anybody, any investors. europe was up sharply today and london had the best gains, and up 5%, and paris and germany was also up, and there was -- i am being brutally honest. there was no reason for yesterday's fallout, and there is no reason to justify what we're seeing today. it's volatility and fear in both directions. what you see is what you get. you just got to hold your nerve. >> well, we are certainly trying to, here on this side of the atlantic. what about what is happening in europe. it seems as though every day a different european country is in the spotlight, and it's not always a positive spotlight. italy and spain and yesterday,
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france, what is going on? >> so you had italy, which is now being secured. and you have france, is it going to be downgraded and s&p said no it was not going to be, and then one of the big banks, was it going to go bust, and the bank said no it was not going to go bust or words to that effect, and then today we had rumors of possible bans on short sells, so it's just the stuff that normally swirls around the markets, and that doesn't really get taken any notice of, but in these markets where people are looking at the fundamentals, you do start to get disproportionate swings. we did get good news. the jobs was talking about encouraging in the united states. we got the british chancellor saying today that the road to recovery in britain was going to be longer and harder than first thought of, but in a swift gig
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to everybody else, the prime minister said austerity is what makes this a safe haven. don't forget the table in the up right and stowed position? >> always, always, i promise. thank you, richard. british prime minister david cameron said police waited too long to move in to prevent rioting and looting. thousands of police stood guard last night. more than 1,200 people were arrested. according to british newspapers among those arrested were a teaching assistant and a lifeguard and even a millionaire's daughter. max foster is live in london with the latest on this. what can you tell us about the people involved in all of the unrest? >> reporter: well, there are those cases that you described there, but what we are finding out is nearly half of them in london are under the age of 18,
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and more shocking cases are coming out as we have a fast-tracking legal court process that is going through right now to deal with the hundreds of people that are being arrested, for example, and in the english midland's an 11-year-old girl is being charged with criminal damage, and she's being held in a police cell, which is unusual. in manchester, north of england, you have a 13-year-old boy being sentenced who is in a cell as well. davidcameron being as tough as he can. >> is this some sort of gang culture at work? >> yeah, and talk about that young boy there, he actually says the heart of the problem here is with young boys from dysfunctional families. he's talking about a gang culture which has developed here, and that's at the heart of the problem. it's not about poverty, and it's about culture and all the riots were in poor areas, of course. he is taking advice from a
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former commissioner of the new york police and the l.a. police, and he wants to get grips on what he thinks is the gang culture and he thinks he can learn from the united states on this, and is taking it very, very serious. >> given the gang problem in los angeles, he certainly can learn a bit. that might help. what about the media social services, and is that helping to fuel that there and what are they doing by that. >> reporter: this was organized in the sense of it was organized on the social media. and meeting up in groups at various riot positions. david cameron will clamp down on this, and he is saying he wants to clamp down on criminality on social media. let's have a look at what he said. >> everybody watching this horrific actions will be struck by how they were organized by social media. free flow information can be used for good and also can be used for ill, so we are working
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with the police and intelligent services to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating when they know they are prompting violence and disorder and criminality. >> this is open to censorship debate, randy. we know the government has called a meeting with social meeting executives to discuss how the police can get greater capability on social media, but will twitter allow a police officer into the office? i doubt it. >> that will be interesting where that goes. thank you, appreciate it. coming up, drinking water scarce in texas, but is recycling sewage the solution? we'll tell you next. couple deca, we didn't even realize just how much natural gas was trapped in rocks thousands of feet below us. technology has made it possible to safely unlock this cleanly burning natural gas. this deposits can provide us with fuel for a hundred years, providing energy security and economic growth
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right now parts of texas are running dry. reservoirs are vanishing and drinking water growing scarce and the situation is desperate. but there may be a solution, a solution many texans are finding it a bit hard to swallow. tell us more about the controversy over the solution. >> what is interesting about this, the idea is turning waste water into drinking water. the technology has improved to where this could be done, but it has a major pr battle because everybody else that doesn't like the idea simply says disgusting. >> in this withering west texas patch, oil still flows. the problem is you can't drink
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oil, and finding water is getting tougher, which brings us to the town of big spring. this is the spring in big spring. more than 100 years ago it was a popular watering hole for people heading west, and you won't believe what people around here are having to do now to find drinking water. crews are building a $13 million water treatment plant that will turn sewage waste water into drinking water by the end of next year. it will be mixed with lake water and -- >> i will never drink it. that's not a good idea at all. >> reporter: you don't like it? >> no, if they do, we will have to leave town. >> reporter: really? >> yeah, yeah. that's too much. >> reporter: are you the sales man for this plan? >> somebody has to be.
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>> reporter: and it's this man's job to find drinking water in the half of million people in the area around odessa. when you hear people say these people will be drinking their own urine. this part of west texas has seen three inches of rain in the last year. the drought is drying out the area's three reservoirs. this is what is left of the reservoir. it's the only source of drinking water for the nearby town of robert lee, but the problem is there's less than 1% left. he says the situation is so dire his town could run out of water in six month, and he thinks turning waste water into drinking water is the future. >> on the surface of it, that doesn't sound appealing, does it? >> not appealing. again, going thirsty isn't either. this is the water that we will
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be picking up and taking it back through the new water treatment plant we're building. >> reporter: the new water treatment plant will provide 2 million gallons of water every day, and he predicts people will like it. this process could make it taste better? >> it could. it will be as good of quality water with less salt you can find anywhere. >> reporter: he says he will be the first in line to pour himself a gas. the fancy title is water reclinician. it's mostly used for industrial purposes, and it's less common to turn it into drinking water, and it has been done in orange county, california. astronauts on the international space station recycle that stuff to drink.
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>> too much information, ed. tmi. great story for lunchtime. >> on a serious note, they will run out of water in six months or so and is the plant going to be ready? >> they are working on an emergency pipeline, that town of robert lee, and they hope they will be able to avoid that. a lot of the reservoirs around that midland odessa are down to the last drops. one of the other lakes, it only has 25% of it left. several different plans. this is one of them. they are also tapping into other water and that sort of thing, but this is a idea that gets a lot of headlines. >> and i like the guy with the positive out look saying he gets to drink his beer twice. surviving only on food stamps. it's a way of life for a record
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46 million americans. could you survive on $200 a month in food stamps? you will meet one man next trying to do exactly that. there's another way litter box dust:e purina tidy cats. tidy cats premium line of litters now works harder on dust. and our improved formulas neutralize odors better than ever in multiple-cat homes. so it's easier to keep your house
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we turn to startling statistics that should make us take notice. 1 in 7 people are living off food stamps. they depend on the federal program to buy groceries, and as the jobless rate continues to teeter above 9%, the number of food stamp recipients go up to a whopping 70% in four years. we catch up with one man struggling to survive on $200 a month in food stamps. >> reporter: on a short walk to the grocery store in the shadow of the capitol, a bracing window into how tough life has been in the years. >> see here, that's her.
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waiting for the bus stop. >> reporter: a community aid worker that died of childbirth complications. he now lives in a home for people struggling to get back on their feet. he has been on foot stamps for a year and a half. advocates who fight hunger say it's a perfect storm of hardship. >> unemployment went way up and stayed high, and wages are flatter for really the bottom half of the population. >> reporter: he is trying to get back to his calling. he has 35-plus experience as a cook. he gets $200 a month in food stamps. >> reporter: is that enough? >> no, it's not enough. i find ways to stretch it. >> reporter: we duck into a
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grocery store where he shops. you are limited. >> this you cannot buy. >> reporter: why? >> because it's prepared. i can buy salad and fruits. that's the cheapest thing to buy. you can pick out from things like this, and you have to look for sales. basic stuff here, tooth paste. >> can't do it. >> you can't buy toos paste? >> no, soap, deodorant. because if it's not edible, you cannot buy it. >> for those items you have to use your own money, if you have it. frederick says at 53, first time unemployed, his pride has taken a big hit from this. >> i don't want to be on it. if i didn't have to eat, i wouldn't be on it. i have to eat to live.
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that's the way i have to do it these days. i go around, and i have a sign on my chest, saying i need to eat. >> this at least prevents you having to do that? >> prevents me from begging and panhandling. i have pride. i am a human being. >> reporter: frederick says he has other priorities. he has to get out of the transitional home, and to do that, like so many others, he has to find a job first. like tens of millions of other americans he will be on the food stamp program for a little longer. >> coming up, a woman showing the world the results of a facial transplant two years after being mauled by a shim pansy. and transfer between accounts, so your money can move as fast as you do. check out your portfolio, track the market with live updates.
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point plunge. at some point the dow has soared or plunged more than 5%. that happened only once in all of 2010. a florida police officer shot at by three siblings spoke today following the suspects' arrest in colorado. >> i look forward to seeing these criminals receive the punishment they are due for putting my life in danger as well as many citizens they showed total disregard for. >> the siblings are appearing in a colorado court today. they also have standing federal warrants in georgia and florida. the war in afghanistan claimed more american lives. the pentagon says five u.s. troops were killed by a roadside bomb today in southern afghanistan. the pentagon has now released the names of all of those troops
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killed. a connecticut woman that underwent a full face transplant after an attack of chimpanzee in 2009 showed off the look today. she underwent surgery in boston back in may, and her face was left mangled after she was viciously attached the attack of a friend's chimpanzee. she is recovering and can now feel her jaw and chin and can smile. is that a miracle. it's the word's worst humanitarian disaster, where starvation and sickness have become double dangerous for somalia's children. dr. sanjay gupta takes us to the border after this break.
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men, women and a heart-breaking number of children are dying every day in east africa, and whether from starvation or sickness, much of it is preventible. dr. sanjay gupta is in somalia where the tiny graves are multiplying. >> reporter: you heard the numbers for sometime, 2,000 people coming in a day to this count, the largest refugee camp in the world. it's hard to fatham how this camp continues to function, and for the people who came here in much of a better life, it doesn't mean they will get a better life, in fact their problems may have just begun. parents here are forced to do the unthinkable sometimes. the kids here will melt your hard. >> how old are you? >> reporter: how old am i? wow, 41. they impressed me with their
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english, so i spoke a little somali to them, and they loved it. rare smiles in a place too full of heart break. amin and her 1-month-old daughter madison came here for a search of a better life, and in the end, it made little difference, because she lost the one thing she cared about more than anything else. we are walking to her daughter's grave. they are piles of dirt, no name plate, just small sticks with colored trash blowing in the wind. she says she brought her healthy baby girl here with dreams of new beginnings. but addison died within a month. what went wrong? she started vomiting, she said. then diarrhea. wouldn't stop for days and days.
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diarrhea illness, it's the major reason 30,000 kids have died here over the past three months. so many tiny little graves, like this one. part of the problem is after you get to one of these camps, there's still not enough food here, not enough water and plenty of infectious diseases, and there is dip theira and per tuesdays. this is osmond. he is 14 years old. as you can tell, he doesn't feel well. people are concerned that he has measles. he has high fever and the rash and he never got vaccinated or any sort of treatment. measles, as you know, is very contagious. he has nowhere else to go. so hundreds of thousands more of these adorable children, unvaccinated, are at risk of the same fate of armen's daughter.
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it is with god, and so there is nothing else these kids can do but laugh and play, surrounded by the dead. randy, it's hard to think about, but it's happening way too often here. parents burying their children. you also learn that it's not simply about food and water in terms of making a difference, but it's about medical care and evacuate nati vaccinations and doing things early to avoid tragedies like this. >> it's so very sad, sanjay. thank you. anderson cooper has been in east africa along with sanjay gupta, and tonight he is on at a new time, a reminder for you, 8:00 p.m. eastern. find out how you can help by visiting our impact your world page, at cnn.com/impact. executing their enemies with
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grenades and high-powered weapons. mexico drug gang and their link to mid evil christian warriors, and that's a live report coming your way next. [ jon ] we don't just come up here for the view up in alaska. it's the cleanest, clearest water. we find the best, sweetest crab for red lobster we can find. yeah! [ male announcer ] hurry in to crabfest at red lobster. the only time you can savor three sweet alaskan crab entrees all under $20, like our hearty crab and roasted garlic seafood bake or snow crab and crab butter shrimp. [ jon ] i wouldn't put it on my table at home,
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being members of mexico's newest drug operation, using a arsenal of hand grenades and high caliber weapons to attack their inth enemie enemies. the group swore to protect. the emerges of this criminal cartel is especially worry some to another group in mexico with the same name. but this is a christian charity whose mission is to help the poor. >> translator: we work on social causes, and helping people in need and of course trying to preserve our traditions. violence doesn't go well with this and it's clearly defined. >> the drug cartel is not the
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only one to use the name for criminal purposes. the norwegian who admitted killing 76 people in a bombing and shooting rampage in july claimed to represent a modern day knight stempler. the code they follow is anything but religious. >> translator: we have to make something very clear. we are the heirs of a historical thing. >> reporter: experts say the group is long gone. >> if you point your browser at the word "templer," you will get
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all kinds of things. a lot of them in france, anyway, were put to death. >> rafael romo joins us here. any indications to why the drug cartel would choose this name? >> one of the alleged founders and leaders used to be a schoolteacher many, many years ago, and there is really no indication whether he is a history buff or he's somebody who just watched the "da vinci code" or read the book and for whatever reason chose to use the name. >> also the cartel is making it their mission, as they say, to protect people. is that even possible? how does that sit with the public? >> they posted banners without the state saying that was one of their priorities, protect people and stop robberies and stuff like that, and there was a seemingly spontaneous protest in favor of the group when they first appeared, but later,
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authorities found out many of the people attending these rallies had actually been doing that because they were threatened by the group with death if they did not participate. so at first people thought, yeah, they had support, but the reality was they were using threats. >> yeah, doesn't sound like they are doing much protecting at all. thank you. up next, how small robots like this one you are about to see helped to rescue survivors in dangerous disaster zones. s b] america is facing some tough challenges right now. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy.
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but did you know land, sea and air robots are being used on rescue missions. why? they can do a lot of things like we can't, like search mercky water for hours on end, and squeeze through tiny openings. pretty cool, right? one of the masterminds behind one of the evolving creatures joins me now for today's big eye. tell us how your search and rescue center came about? >> the center started before 9/11. it was taking advantage of a lot of technology and the teams working on what became the robots that you see in "the hurt locker", and using that for applications such as search and rescue. >> how were they used in japan,
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say, after the earthquake and tsunami? >> most people are surprised to hear that we took the marine vehicles, the water-based vehicles, and we were called in within three days of the disaster, and we could not get there until april because of the travel restrictions with their l infrastructure inspected. you had 400 miles of devastation along the coast, so that meant everybody's bridges is out. everybody's port is closed. there's debris all over. everything has been washed out to sea. there's no way to get food and water in, and so it becomes very critical to check infrastructure. >> and why the water base? why was that so critical? >> well, that's where people live, and it's also very difficult for -- to do this manually. there's not enough divers in the world to inspect 400 miles quickly, and a lot of it is very
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unsafe. the japanese coast guard, once they saw us operating, came over, and we worked with them for several days as well as with the cities because they were unable to send their divers into the very shallow areas where there was a lot of debris because it's incredibly unsafe for divers to do that. >> yeah. >> and there were these huge islands of floating not -- floating flotsam and they were not able to dive underneath there to see if any remains could be recovered. >> these can be used in air as well, right? they are not just about land and sea. >> yes. we've used land and aerial vehicles as well as sea vehicles. everything that we worked with responders through our robotics without borders program, man portable or man packable, so either a couple of people can carry it, or can you put it in a backpack so we've used ground vehicles at world trade center, aerial vehicles at hurricane katrina, but we see a lot of --
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with hurricanes and earthquakes, tsunamis, a lot of damage is by the water, and a lot of the infrastructure, a lot of things need to get fix there had. >> yeah. so once you're on the ground or the team is on the ground with this rescue robot, how long does it take to put it in motion and get it started? >> often 15 minutes. >> oh, wow. >> ten minutes. >> so fast. >> the seabotic from opening the trunk of a minivan to getting into the water is less than ten minutes, and it's been optimized exactly for that. the uk has really been a leader in adopting rescue robots. we haven't seen them catch on here in the united states quite as much. we've got a lot of delays. agencies need to make the final approvals and set aside money like they do for bomb squads to get bomb squad robots. but in the uk they have optimized around this idea that if they can get to a car that's gone into a ditch or into the
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water, the water up there is so cold, if you can get to them within 30 to 60 minutes, there's a good chance of successfully reviving them, so having this robot that they can go in and can see through the murky waters, bust through a window, help latch on to somebody or cut their seat belt and get them back up quickly is really important. >> and when you say the robot is doing that, it's really someone close by behind the scenes working to make that happen, right? >> that's right. right now all of these robots are utility operated. there's always a person in the loop to make decisions because every disaster and every emergency is different, but one of the things that we do on the research side of the center for research assistance search and rescue is to try to bring in research that does the next thing so to make there'sier for the responders, to reduce the load, to make it more certain, so looking at how to clean up the -- enhance the video, to
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coordinate several robots, to make things go faster, to help with the visualization. we'll be going back to japan in october, and we're going to be doing a lot of focusing on how to get the information from the robot into a format that's easier for the responders to understand and to start taking advantage of artificials intelligence and cartography work and when it finds something to update the projection in realtime. >> fascinating technology. glad you were able to comon and share that with us, robin murphy from texas a&m, thank you. for much more about the rescue robots, check out my facebook page, facebook.com/randikayecnn. tune in tomorrow for the same "big i" time and channel. nancy pelosi has appointed three house democrats to fill out the super committee charged with crafting a plan to reduce the country's mounting deficits. joe johns will tell us who they are next. [ male announcer ] imagine all of your missed opportunities
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house democratic leader nancy pelosi today named the final three members to the 12-member bipartisan congressional committee on deficit reduction. cnn's joe johns joins me now live from the political desk in washington. hi there, joe. i know you've had a chance to look at these names. any surprises? >> i don't think you can call them surprises.
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congressman jim clyburn is the assistant minority leader from south carolina, number three democrat in the house. also the highest ranking african-american member of congress. no stranger to this issue. he was president for the vice president's debt negotiations. javier becerra is from los angeles, california, the first hispanic on the powerful house ways and means committee which handles tax issues. i think you can call him a true liberal. he's seen as very sharp, book smart, at times outspoken. congressman chris van hollen from maryland, top democrat on the budget committee. his name together committee was expected. he put out a statement a little while ago saying he thinks fixing the unemployment problem is the best way to reduce the deficit, so that's one of those refrains we hear pretty regularly from democrats these days. he's seen as a rising star in the congress. no real surprises. it's not like she put a conservative blue dog on the committee which would have sort
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of turned heads, if you will. >> yeah. a lot of people there are wondering if this committee is going to be able to get anything done. what's their history in terms of the bipartisan agreement in. >> they are seen as democratic party loyal its. i think you talk to them. they are seen as reasonable people but not exactly ready to sort of bargain away the core issues that the democratic base cares about the most, so i -- i don't know that you can sit down and look at these three and say, hey, these are real deal-makers that will just bargain away some of the basics. you know, you have to look to some others, particularly some of those senators who were named to see the people who are going to try to actually come up with a bargain in all likelihood. >> now we know the names. when do these folks actually get to work? >> we do know there's talk of them getting together pretty quickly, at least in a conference call of some sort. no idea of when they are actually going to meet and get
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down to business. nonetheless, time is a-wasting as they say, because they have a big job to do, not a lot of job to do it. first thing they have to come up with is some kind of agreement by thanksgiving and when you think of all the congressional recesses in the middle, that's not too's' trick, and then they have to put something on the floor of the house and the senate by -- by christmas. >> well, i think, joe, you'll have a very busy fall. >> i think you've got that right. >> all right, joe. thank you. >> you bet, randi. a new hour could mean anything on wall street these days, but guess what? we are still in a rally, everyone. you don't need to peek through your fingers. the dow is actually up 354 points after yesterday's selloff which followed a rally, which followed a selloff. so consider this. at some point in each of the past three days, the dow has soared or plunged more than 5%. that happened only once, if you're keeping track, in all of
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2010. so here's where i turn to cnn's alison kosik at the epicenter of it all. alison, what's happening on the street right now? >> reporter: well, we're holding on to our gains. got to be happy about that after the week that we've had. the rebound that you're seeing is really from the market just being oversold over the past few days. you're seeing investors come in and scoop up bargains because stocks have fallen so much. you're also seeing the market react to a positive jobless claim number. we're below that crucial 400,000 mark. we'll see if we can hold that level for at least another few weeks and see if there's a trend growing there. also, wall street is happy about some earnings that came out from cisco systems, considered a bellwether company for the tech sector and that's also why we're seeing the nasdaq up almost 4%, but i'll tell you what, randi. you know, we're seeing the sentiment here. it's clearly changed. i'm seeing less nervousness now that concerns about france are easing. officials from french banks have comout in press conferences disputing the rumor about
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possibly being the next country to lose its aaa rating. as you know, this the u.s. is connected to everybody else around the world. you know, evidence of that is the last recession that started as the subprime mortgages here in the u.s. and then, of course, rippled throughout the world, so relief that the crisis, at least, or the perceived crisis about france has eased a bit, and that's also why you're seeing the big rally today. randi? >> there also seems to be some relief about the jobless claims as well-being down. >> reporter: exactly. and as i said, you know, jobless claims numbers, they fell by 7,000, and talking about the first-time claims, so for people who are first out of work and filing those initial jobless claims, benefits, requests, they are down by 7,000 to 395,000, and we really want to see that number stay below 400,000, because economists see that as job creation, that there's job creation going on, but this is only one week, so we'll have to really kind of watch this very closely. you'll want to see the level kind of go down even further week after week to really show
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that jobs are being created and less people are being laid off. randi? >> all right. alison kosik at the new york stock exchange, alison, thank you. now, i want to read you a quote that we wish we could hear from everybody who does research into cancer treatments. are you ready for this? quote, it worked much better than we thought it would. now it is an exciting new approach to attacking the most common form of leukemia. dock dotors at the university of pennsylvania took a certain type of white blood cell from three leukemia patients who had exhausted the conventional therapies. they inserted some genes that made the cells recognize, target and kill the cancer cells and to multiply inside the body. the good cells thus became serial killers of sorts, of the bad cells. one year later two of the patients have no detectible cancer in their bodies. the third has 70% fewer cancer cells than before. joining me here to talk about this in atlanta, to talk about all of this and what this means
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exactly is dr. otis breauly, the chief medical officer of the american cancer society, and from philadelphia we're also pleased to welcome to the show the lead researcher himself, dr. carl june. dr. june, i'd like to start with you. tweaking patients' own cells to attack disease isn't new, so i'm curious what you did that past researchers didn't do. >> well, thank you. there are several new innovative aspects to the trial that we just reported. first of all, our trial was the first to use an hiv-based virus to introduce the gene into the patient's good cells, the t-cells as you call them. that then turned the cells into chymerat-cells, and for an animal that's composed of two different species, and in this case we made the t-cells chymeric and then t-cells which are able to kill other cells, in
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this case tumor cells, so they -- they were very efficiently manufactured in the chymeric cells with express antibodies which are a known and effe effective treatment for cancer and another thing that made a difference is the cells actually replicated when we infused them into the patient. we found in all patients the cells were still present more than six months after they were infused, and furthermore, in two of the patients, the cells expanded between 1,000 and 10,000fie 10,0 10,000-fold after infusion, and there's one other aspect which made the cells work which we think is they were multitasking cells so the chymeric cells, when they encountered the tumor, they killed the tumor. they were told to do that by the protein, and then the other thing they did is that they divided so they made more of themselves, and we found that each cell was able to kill more
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than 1,000 tumor cells this way. >> that's amazing. i want to bring in dr. breauly here. i'm curious what you think of this. it sounds like we might be on to something here >> i think this is incredibly good work. i don't want patients to get the wrong impression, however. there's still a lot of good work to be done. dr. june has been working on things like this since his old days at the bethesda naval hospital and we were together 20 years ago. this is still probably going to need five to ten more years of good work before we can get it out to large numbers of people if it works then. we've helped three patients so far, and hopefully we're going to be able to help more, but it's going to take some time. >> dr. june, what type of leukemia did you actually study here? >> well, first of all, i want to emphasize what dr. breauly said it's entirely true. it takes an average five to ten years to get fda approval and to make something like this generally available, and that's a large task ahead, and the
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patients, specifically we've treated had chroniclymphocytic leukemia, the most chronic leukemia in adults. >> why was the study so small? i know we're talking about three patients here. >> well, it was a pilot study, the first time that this had been tested, and we were only able to get enough funding to do that, to treat initially to see if it would be safe or not and then -- now we plan to continue the study and -- and, you know, to go on to the steps that dr. brawley was mentioning. >> is there a shortage overall of cancer research funding in the u.s.? >> absolute i. you know, about 10% of all the ideas submitted to the national cancer institute actually get funded, those ideas that have been judged to be worthy of funding. we're at a point where we have lots of ideas, lots of very good science that could be done, but only about 10% of it is actually
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funded, so there's probably some good studies like this that got no money whatsoever and never got to the patients, one of the reasons why we're so adamant that we need to support scientific research. >> even though it may take a while, maybe five or ten years as dr. june, you say, we're certainly excited about it. thank you so much, dr. brawley, dr. june for coming on and discussing this with us. >> thank you. an update on the alleged beating death of a california homeless man. next, we'll talk to the california district attorney investigating this case. are there any charges pending? we'll dig deeper. from neutrogena® naturals. developed with dermatologists... it's clinically proven to remove 99% of dirt and toxins and purify pores. and with natural willowbark it contains no dyes, parabens or harsh sulfates. dirt and toxins do a vanishing act and my skin feels pure and healthy. [ female announcer ] new purifying facial cleanser from the new line of neutrogena naturals.
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who is homeless and schizophrenic was allegedly beaten to death by six fullerton police officers. now i want to warn you. this picture that we're about to show you is very tough to look at. this is what kelly thomas looked like before. that's on the left side, and then after the beating. barely recognizable. on july 5th, fullerton police responded to reports of a man trying to break into cars near a bus station. witnesses say what began with the search of thomas' backpack ended with this. they say thomas was kicked, tasered multiple times, hogtied face down, smashed against the concrete. his head slammed with a flashlight. thomas fell into a comba and died from his injuries five days later. officers reportedly found some things in thomas' backpack that didn't belong to him. police say thomas also tried to run from them. we did reach out to the fullerton police department, and they everyone you'd this brief statement from police chief michael sellers who says, quote, this is tragic for our community. we are in the midst of an investigation. meanwhile, sellers was put on
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medical leave yesterday, according to the fullerton police department. the six officers allegedly involved in this beating have been placed on paid administrative leave. yesterday i spoke with pat mckinley who is a current city council member and the former fullerton police chief. here's what he said about the six officers involved in this case. do you know any of the officers involved? >> oh, i'm certain i do. i probably hired them all. >> you hired them all, you think? >> oh, probably. >> how do you feel considering that officers you hired might have been involved in this, appear to have been involved in this? >> well, i'm going to guess now. i'm going to guess that there may be two that are deeply involved. the others i don't think the investigation will show had any
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culpability. >> so will there be charges filed against anyone in this case? >> joining me now is the district attorney investigating the death of kelly. you have said that there is no evidence yet that suggest that the officers had intent to kill kelly thomas. is that still the case? >> yes, it is, and what i mean by that is that i don't see any evidence of intentional killing, that is, a police officer starting out to -- to kill mr. thomas and then -- and then having that result, but this, of course, is a very tragic incident. it's -- it's a desperate struggle that results in -- in the death of mr. thomas. >> yeah. let's talk about this surveillance video. it hasn't been released to the public. have you had a chance to view it, and if so, why isn't it being released? >> well, it -- i have had a chance to view it, and it's a central part of our investigation. this is something that -- that we're looking at and that we
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need to also look at all of the different circumstances surrounding the incident to -- to determine just what it was that happened, so, you know, as a part of the investigation, i think that we need to -- to use it for that, and it's not -- it wouldn't be appropriate to release it at this time, but i can assure you that at some point it will become public. if there's charges filed, it will become public as part of the public trial, and if not, eventually it will -- i'm sure it will still come out, so, you know, at this point it needs to be -- it needs to be a part of the investigation. we need to view it that way you. >> say it's a key piece of evidence. certainly sounds like it is. can you give us an idea if you're not releasing it what is seen on there. >> well, it -- it shows the -- the encounter, how -- how it started and how it erupted into a -- this violent and desperate struggle that i discussed, and it -- it helps us to answer -- it will help us to answer the question which is the primary
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legal question in this case, that is, whether or not the -- the police were using lawful force or reasonable force in the conduct of a lawful duty, so, i mean, that's really what it comes down, to reasonable force under all of the circumstances of the case, and can you see a great deal in this video as to how these things -- how everything started. >> right. >> and how it proceeded. >> was it hard to watch? >> mm-hmm. it's heart wrenching. it's heart wrenching. it's hard to describe it differently. like i say, it's a tragic incident, and if it makes your heart go out to the family of mr. thomas and to just -- to see it, it's not -- not a pleasant thing, no. >> yeah. i want to mention to you some comments that we had yesterday made by community activist who was on the show. said he's been pushing for the surveillance video to be released. we also spoke with city councilman pat mckinley who said
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he thought you would release the sri. listen to what he said and then we'll come back and talk more. >> now the district attorney has said, and i'm quoting i think the district attorney properly that once the investigation is completed, then he will release the tape, the district attorney will release the tape, the city won't do it. >> is that true? once the investigation is completed, do you think he'll released video? >> this is going to depend on where we go. if charges are filed, then we have certain rules of evidence and we're going to have to use the video in the course of handling the case so properly, and it would certainly be released during that event during -- during the maybe preliminary hearing or trial or whenever it would come up during the -- during the course of the proceedings. >> what charges are you considering? >> well, we're looking at
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everything. there's -- you know, whenever something like this happens, like i say, we have to answer the question as to whether or not there was reasonable force, and if not, how much unreasonable force was there and what was the state of mind of the police officers who might have used it, so it could be anything from if it's simply -- if it's unreasonable force that results in the death of mr. thomas. >> yeah. >> it could be a -- it could be a manslaughter. if it's very severe, it could be a homicide, a murderer. >> we just showed the picture again of the before and after of kelly thomas. is there any question that force was used sneer when you look at him, can you barely tell that it's a human being or even the same human being? >> of course there's no question as to whether or not force was used. it was. the question is whether or not it's reasonable force under all of the circumstances presented to the police at the time and whether -- whether or not they were overcoming unlawful resistance by mr. thomas, so these are legal questions that have to be answered. we're moving fast towards
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answering these. i think we'll have the whole picture here in a short time, and we're -- we're moving towards a just and fair result. >> all right. well, when you get to that answer, we'd love to have you back on the show and talk about what you found in terms of force. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> thank you for your time. >> thank you. downgraded from aaa to aa-plus, what long-term effect, if any, will it have on the u.s. going forward? that's ahead in today's "q&a." every project we finish comes with a story built-in. it's how our rough ideas become "you did that yourself?" so when we can save more on the projects that let us fix, make, and do more... that just makes the stories even better. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. right now get this vanity and matching mirror for just $99. [ martin luther king jr. ] i still have a dream that one day on the red hills of georgia,
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quest means business and so does my friend ali. we're here together in the cnn newsroom and around the world. good day to you, ali. >> and to you, richard. we are here as always to talk business, travel, innovation. nothing is off limits. richard? >> and proving that point today we're going to talk about downgrades and credit agencies. with standard & poor's dropping the rating for the u.s. to aa-plus. it got people talking about the usefulness of these agencies and credit raters. >> so here is the question this week. are credit rating agencies a threat to your wealth? rich, i'll let you go first. you've got 60 seconds. >> yes. it's a very simple question with a simple answer. the major rating agencies have done a terrible job of catching
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financial crises, and often have made bad situations worse. for instance, the agencies missed the undercurrents that led to the crisis of '08. it gave high ratings to mortgage-backed bonds which spectacularly blew up. the congressional committee blasted the agent sis for sloppy work and for conflict of interests. perhaps to redeem their reputation, s&p decided to downgrade the u.s. when everyone, everyone agrees that there's no real risk of default through an inability to pay. s&p probably deserve much of the criticism. their timing stank. right after the debt crisis it was like shouting fire in a crowded theater. s&p's actions made a bad situation worse. we can't get rid of them. we need them to do their job better. >> interesting way of looking at it, richard. let me have a go at this. despite these losses triggered
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by the downgrade, standard & poor's is not the danger. no ratings agency actually is. as you will agree, rich, the real threat is what s&p is pointing out. america's government appears to be broken and tone deaf. while both parties in washington have spent the week since the downgrade blaming each other and s&p, very few have stepped up, taken notice of the grade and set out on the road to improvement. the part of the s&p downgrade being conveniently ignored in washington, richard, is where they discuss how washington is less stable, less effective and less predictable, and that is the real danger to your wealth. the deal struck to raise the debt ceiling didn't cut in the right places. it raised no taxes because lawmakers simply couldn't agree, richard, and the super committee we have now tasked with finding another $1.5 trillion in either cuts or tax increases is likely doomed to the same fate. can you question s&p and the agencies, but in the end it's all done -- all it's done it
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announced that the emperor has no clothes, and the whole world sees that america is naked. richard. >> and that is enough to -- the thought of ali talking about nakedness, to put me off any din they are evening. the voice joins me now and ali to the question time. >> let's jump right in, gentlemen. question number one. according to s&p's credit rating system, which of these countries is a better investment for foreign investors? is it a, india, b, italy, c, south korea, or, d, brazil? richard? >> i'm going with brazil. >> incorrect. ali? >> india. india. >> incorrect yet again. the correct answer is italy. it gets an a-plus rating, and even though they are in their own financial trouble, they rank
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highest on the list. on to question number two. a country's wealth can be measured as gdp per capita. using that formulas which of these countries does the world bank rank as the wealthiest? is it a, canada, b, singapore, c, germany or, d, japan? richard? >> i'd say singapore. >> incorrect. >> care to give it a shot, ali? >> japan. >> incorrect again. the correct answer is canada. canada's gdp per capita is $46,000, just behind the u.s., but well behind the uk. that's pretty embarrassing, mr. develop shy, your home country. >> i hope you have extra space in your flat, richard, because i'll never be able to go home. >> let's see if one of you can
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win this week. all of this credit rating news has sparked talk about the bond market. let's talk bond, shall we. according to boxofficemojo.com, which of these james bond movies made the most money adjusted for inflation? is it a, "quantum of solace," b, "diamonds are forever," c, thunderball" or, d, "goldfinger." >> don't answer. a trick question, adjusted for inflation. remember, the extra number of screens that it opens on is not an inflation adjustment so it's got to be one of the newer ones. "quantum of solace." >> that is incorrect, ali. >> give it a shot, richard. yeah, of course. it's going to be "goldfinger." >> incorrect again. the correct answer is actually "thunderball." it made nearly $600 million, and "goldfinger" was number two.
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it just goes to show you can't beat a classic sean connery as james bond. >> there you go. all right, voice. >> we didn't get any of them. >> yeah. >> we didn't get anything right and we'll be rooming together. that's really what i've taken away from this week. >> that will do it for this week. remember, we're here each week, thursdays on "quest means business," 1800g. >> and at cnn in the newsroom at 2:00 p.m. eastern keep the questions coming on our blog. tell us each week what you want to talk about. richard, see you next week, buddy. >> see you next week. have a good one. syrian president assad is accused of killing his own people every day. now word that the u.s. plans to call on assad to step down, but is this going to do any good? our hala gorani who just returned from syria joins me
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next. and we're also of course waiting for president obama to speak in michigan. we'll bring that to you as soon as we can. ♪ [ country ] [ man ] ♪ gone, like my last paycheck ♪ gone, gone away ♪ gone, like my landlord's smile ♪ ♪ gone, gone away ♪ my baby's gone away with dedicated claims specialists... and around-the-clock service, travelers can help make things better quicker. will your auto and home insurer... be there when you need them most? for an agent or quote, call 800-my-coverage... or visit travelers.com.
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it has been a daily activity in syria for months. government forces opening fire on demonstrators, demanding that president assad step down. this video shows what witnesses say is a mosque being shelled by syrian military artillery. human rights groups say thousands of people have been killed since the unrest first erupted back in march. there were more clashes today with reports of at least 22 people killed across the country. but assad shows no sign of ending his crackdown until order is completely restored. so far the u.s. has not officially called on assad to resign, but there are growing signs that may be about to change. cnn's hala gorani recently
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returned from syria and joins us now to talk about this a little bit more. the u.s. has said okay, more sanctions. that happened yesterday, and now they may actually call for assad to step down. why now? >> well, the escalation of violence for one thing and the u.s.' important ally in the region, turkey, is putting pressure on seeria. the belief is putting that much pressure with regional powers such as saudi arabia, kuwait, bahrain, pulling their ambassadors for consultations might make a difference. however, those who know the region, many analysts say, look, this regime is not fighting against its own citizens for anything other than survival. anything less than survival. this is a minority regime compose composed of opening it up to reforms and a pluralistic system that many say will lead to its downfall and it will lead to its debt.
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>> what is the reality for reaction? >> a chorus of condemnations, including the united nations, now passion even with the support of some of those who have been opposed to condemning syria, such as russia and china, and perhaps all of this, all of these voices put together will start having an impact, but reality inside of syria is that this is a regime that has the full support of its military. very unlike egypt, for instance, so really a tide can only start turning in that country when the armed forces start disassociating. will you see high level defections, resilience among the regime officials? that's what will end up weakening this government, and that is what might end up producing a change in that country. but if that happens, it won't happen right away. it is a much longer term story in syria. >> well, we'll see how the u.s. acts this week, maybe even today. hala gorani, thank you. >> sure. >> we've been telling you about the tragedy unfolding in somalia. tens of thousands dying as a result of the worst drought in
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some 60 years. even worse, if that's possible, the hundreds of thousands of very young children facing starvation. we're joined now from somalia. you have a story on one family who reached a refugee camp but not in time for at least one child. what happened? >> reporter: well, this is actually a story, randi, we were hearing from so many of the families that we were speaking to there. we were in the hospital ward, the children's ward in one of the largest hospitals in somalia, and we noticed that there was a family who was sitting. they weren't speaking and looked incredibly distraught. we realized because they were sitting with the body of their 1-year-old baby wrapped in a slud. they had actually come up their three children risking everything to try and save all three of their children. two of those children died on the journey out there, and the
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last baby had died that morning, and they were sitting on that bed waiting because they didn't even have enough money to bury their child, randi, and it was just a story that even in that ward on that same day we heard so many times it was just unbelievable to be in that hospital and realize that this is the major facility that's tending to these children, and there was no running water, no electricity. they were running out of sail e isailine to rehydrate. they had absolutely nothing. the aid pipeline coming into somalia is failing people, randi. >> and does it seem to you, certainly sounds this way here, does it seem that the doctors and the aid workers are just overwhelmed by this disaster? >> reporter: well, i think the aid workers are definitely trying their best and they are trying to scale up their operations as best as they can,
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but the issue is the funding. you know, we spoke to the united nations humanitarian coordinator for somalia, and he said they have fallen incredibly far short of the $1 billion that they need to save lives. he actually said that there are some worrying gaps, and even more heartbreakingly he said that because the aid has taken so long to -- the pledges are taking so long to get in. they have been talking about this figure of 29,000 children who have already died. 600,000 children that are estimated to starve to death, and i asked him given the severity of the situation, given the thousands of people still flooding in, do you think that figure is going to grow, and he said yes. he said even if today donors pledged more money children would still die because it's been so long in coming, but that they still need that money to come in to try and ensure that this situation doesn't continue so much longer. you know, children -- people will die whatever happens in somalia today, but it's the hope
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that this situation doesn't become ever more sustained, randi. >> yeah. nima elbagir, thank you so much >> to find out how you can make a difference and help the victims of the famine find the impact your world page at cnn.com/impact. well, any moment now president obama will be speaking in holland, michigan. when he does, we will bring it to you live so keep it here. we will be right back.
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with economic power. the city of holland is an emerging hub for hybrid car battery technology. the president is visiting a plant that was built with nearly $300 million in grant money from his 2009 economic stimulus program. our own athena jones is following president obama in michigan today. the president is about to speak. what do you think we can expect him to say? >> well, this is all about jobs. the president is here not only to talk about this clean energy technology, the kind of technology with these advanced batteries for hybrid economic cars that he believes will spur economic growth and create whole new industries of the future as you often hear him say. he's also likely to talk about what he's done what, the administration has done to help save the auto industry, to bail out two of the big three auto industry companies that was an unpopular move at the time, but it saved a lot of jobs, so the idea is that this is all part of the administration's attempt to show that the president is focused like a laser on jobs. he's been promoting though this
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clean energy technology since before he was president, and he believes that this is the kind of way to help america to compete in the global economy. here at johnson controls they got a lot of stimulus money to begin making these kinds of vehicles, but he was here just last year, last july at another advanced battery plant that was just breaking ground. that plant isn't up and running yet, but i can tell you that there's a lot of pent-up demand here in the city for the job that these plants are bringing. right now the plant we're at now has about 75 people working for it. it will get up to 320 at full production, but i was just speaking to some company officials a little while ago, and they said that there have been already more than 1,500 applicants for these 320 jobs here at this company since they just started opening it up last january, january 2010. >> have you had a chance to speak with some of the workers there, and how do they feel about the president's visit? >> i haven't spoken tonist workers here, but we were here yesterday speaking to some people around town, and there's a lot of excitement in the sense that you have these new
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companies coming in, but the real question on people's minds here is how quickly does that translate into jobs. as i mentioned, you've got this plant here that has 75. it's not yet fully ramped up, but you've already got five times the applicants for the jobs it's ultimately going to have. the excitement from last year with the lg plant opening up that the president was at the ground breaking for. not yet online. excitement in town but still a lot of people who are trying to apply to the few jobs that are existing. general question not just here but in general is how quickly can these jobs come online at these different companies, even with government help and government stimulus money and that sort of thing, randi. >> all right. athena jones, thank you so much. we'll continue to watch and wait for the president there who is about to speak in holland, michigan and tour the johnson controls, inc, the battery facility we were just talking about. we'll take a quick break, and as soon as the president starts to speak, we'll be here with it. and maybe up to four in a day.
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for hybrid car battery technology, and this very plant was actually created with stimulus funds. now for some other headlines and news you might have missed. u.s. markets are back up today after positive news about corporate earnings and the labor market boosted investor sentiment. the dow up 389 points after yesterday's 500-point plunge. at some point in each of the past three days the dow has soared or plunged more than 5%. that happened only once in all of 2010. house democratic leader nancy pelosi today name the final three members to the 12-member bipartisan congressional committee on deficit reduction. joining the nine we already knew about are james clyburn, the number three house democrat, javier becerra, member of the ways and means committee and chris van hole len.
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they join three other democratic members already named to the panel. they are crafted with creating a plan to reduce the nation's mounting deficits. talk about fast, the u.s. military tested an experimental aircraft designed to fly at 13,000 miles an hour and reach any target in the world in less than an hour. the high-tech unmanned glider separated from a rocket booster at the edge of space as planned before contact was lost. no updates since. the military's goal is to develop technology to respond to threats around the world at more than five times the speed of sound. a connecticut woman who underwent a full trace transplant after an attack by a chimpanzee in 2009 showed off her new look today. charlesa nash revealed her new face for the first time in a photo release. she underwent surgery at brigham & women's hospital in bpt boston back in may, and now the president has started to speak. let's listen in. >> it is good to be back in holland, michigan.
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a couple people i want to thank in particular, your ceo steve roelle is here. steve. and sitting next to him, one of the finest senators in the country, senator carl levin is in the house. so i just had a chance to see what you guys are doing in this plant. it is very impressive. elizabeth was giving me the tour, and she was very patient with me, and i think i understood about half of what she said. you know, at a time when americans are rightly focused on our economy, when americans are asking about what's our path forward, all of you here at johnson controls are providing a powerful answer. this is one of the most advanced
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factories in the world. you're helping america lead in a growing new industry. you're showing us how we can come back from the worst recession that we've had in generations and start making things here in america that are sold all around the world. and that's why i'm here today. i've said it before. i will say it again. you cannot bet against the american worker. don't bet against american ingenuity. the reason a plant like this exists is because we are a country of unmatched freedom where ground breaking ideas flourish. we've got the finest universities, the finest technical schools, the most creative scientists, the best
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entrepreneurs, all of which is why we are home to the world's most dynamic and successful businesses, large and small. and that's why even in these difficult times there is not a single country on earth that wouldn't trade places with us, not one. we've got to remember that. but we also know that we face some tough challenges right now. you know what they are. you live them every day, in your communities, in your families. you know, too many people who are out of work, struggling to get by with fewer shifts or fewer customers, paychecks aren't big enough, costs are too high, and even though the economy has started growing again since the recession
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started in 2007, the fact is it's not growing fast enough. now some of what we're facing today has to do with events beyond our control. as the economy was improving and improving through 2009, 2010, the beginning of this year, suddenly it was hit with the unrest in the middle east that helped send gas prices through the roof. europe is dealing with all sorts of financial turmoil that is lapping up on our shores. japan's tragic earthquake hurt economies around the globe, including ours, cut off some supply chains that were very important to us. and all of this has further challenged our economy, and as we've seen it's playing out in the stock market, wild swings, up and down, and it makes folks
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nervous, and it affects the savings of families all across america. now challenges like these, earthquakes, revolutions, those are things we can't control, but what we can control is our response to these challenges. what we can control is what happens in washington. unfortunately, what we've seen in washington the last few months has been the worst kind of partisanship, the worst kind of gridlock, and that gridlock has undermined public confidence and impeded our efforts to take the steps we need for our economy. it's made things worse instead of better. so what i want to say to you, johnson controls, is there is nothing wrong with our country. there is something wrong with
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our politics. there's something wrong with our politics that we need to fix. we know there are things we can do right now that will help accelerate growth and job creation, that will support the work going on here at johnson controls, here in michigan and all across america. we can do some things right now that will make a difference. we know there are things we have to do to erase a legacy of debt that hangs over the economy, but time and again we've seen partisan brinksmanship get in the way, as if winning the next election is more important than fulfilling our responsibilities to you and to our country.
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this downgrade you've been reading about could have been entirely avoided if there had been a willingness to compromise in congress. see, it didn't happen because we don't have the capacity to pay our bills. it happened because washington doesn't have the capacity to come together and get things done. it was a self-inflicted wound. that's why people are frustrated. maybe hearing my voice, that's why i'm frustrated, because you deserve better, you guys deserve better. all of you from the ceo down are working hard, taking care of your kids or your parents, maybe
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both. you're living within your means. you may be trying to save for your child's college education or saving for retirement. you're donating to the church or the food pantry. you're trying to help the community. you're doing your part. you're living up to your responsibilities. it's time for washington to do the same, to match your resolve and to match your decency and to show the same sense of honor and discipline. that is not too much to ask. that's what the american people are looking for. and if that can happen, we know what's possible. we know what we can achieve. look at this factory. look what's happening in holland, michigan. every day hundreds of people are going to work on the technologies that are helping us
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to fight our way out of this recession. every day you're building high-tech batteries so that we lead the world in manufacturing the best cars and the best trucks, and that just doesn't mean jobs in michigan. you're buying equipment and parts from suppliers in florida, and new mexico, and ohio, and wisconsin and all across america. so let's think about it. what made this possible? the most important part is you. your drive, your work ethic, your ingenuity, your management, the grit and the optimism that says we've got an idea for a new battery technology or a new manufacturing process, and we're going to take that leap, and we're going to make an investment and we're going to hire some folks and we're going to see it through. that's what made it possible. but what also made this possible
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are the actions that we took together as a nation, through our government. the fact that we were willing to invest in the research and the technology that holds so much promise for jobs and growth. the fact that we helped create together the conditions where businesses like this can prosper. that's why we're investing in clean energy. that's why i brought together the world's largest auto companies who agreed for the first time to nearly double the distance their cars can go on a gallon of gas. that's going to save customers thousands of dollars at the
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pump. it's going to cut our dependence on foreign oil. it's going to promote innovation and jobs, and it's going to mean more ground breakings and most job postings for companies like johnson controls, and that's how america will lead the world in automative innovation and production and exports in this country. think about it. that's what we got done, and by the way, we didn't go through congress to do it, but -- but we did use the tools of government, us working together, to help make it happen. now there are more steps that we can take to help this economy growing faster. there are things we can do right now that will put more money in your pockets, will help businesses sell more products around the world, will put people to work in michigan and across the country. and to get these things done we
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do need congress. they are common sense ideas that have been supported in the past by democrats and republicans. things that are supported by carl levin. the only thing keeping us back is our politics. the only thing preventing these bills from being passed is the -- the refusal of some folks in congress to put country ahead of party. there are some in congress right now who would rather see their opponents lose than see america win, and that has to stop. it's got to stop. we're supposed to all be on the same team, especially when we're going through tough times. we can't afford to play games,
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