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CARL AZUZ: The United States government has announced
new rules when it comes to international airline travel,
and that's where we start today's show.
Hello, everyone.
I'm Carl Azuz.
Thank you for watching this Thursday.
Early last year as the first wave of the COVID pandemic
was spreading around the world.
The Trump administration banned people from China
from traveling to the US.
China was where the disease originated.
Since then the ban has expanded to include other hard hit
countries, including Brazil, India, Iran, South Africa,
and many parts of Europe.
People from these places cannot visit America for tourism
or recreation, and these restrictions
are currently in place under the Biden administration.
People outside these countries are allowed to fly to America
if they have a negative COVID test or proof
that they recently recovered from coronavirus.
As part of its increasing emphasis on vaccines though,
the Biden administration recently
announced new rules that will take place in the months ahead.
People from other countries, who can prove they've been fully
vaccinated, and have a negative COVID
test within three days of their flight can now fly to the US
as tourists.
And that's even if they come from one of the countries
that's currently banned.
They'll have to give more personal information to the US
government though like phone numbers or email addresses
in case there's another coronavirus outbreak,
and officials want to trace exactly where it came from.
What about unvaccinated Americans,
can they still fly to and from other countries?
Yes, for the time being.
But the Biden administration says
they'll face stricter testing requirements like producing
a negative COVID test within one day of their flight
somewhere else, and one day of their flight
back, though, it's not clear how the government would
enforce that.
Supporters of the new rules hope they'll bring more tourism
dollars into the US economy, and the White House
says its new vaccination requirement quote,
"deploys the best tool we have in our arsenal
to prevent the spread of the virus."
But the Delta variant of COVID, which became America's
dominant strain this summer can be caught, and spread by people
who are fully vaccinated.
And it began infecting Americans while stricter travel
bans were still in place.
So critics are concerned the new rules won't
slow down the spread of COVID.
The new air travel rules are set to take effect
in early November, the US government
hasn't set a specific date yet.
10 second trivia.
What happens during an equinox?
Some passes behind moon, winter or summer
begins, sun passes over equator, or daylight saving time ends.
When the sun is directly over the equator
an equinox occurs, and day and night are the same length.
Well, I'm wearing a jacket today so it must be fall.
Yesterday, it was officially the autumnal equinox
in the Northern Hemisphere, and the vernal or Spring
equinox in the southern one.
It's the second equinox of the year.
The term comes from the Latin word equinoxium, which might
sound like a sports drink.
It means equality between day and night
when they're almost the same length.
That's what people saw yesterday all around the world.
There's not much that's noticeably different for those
who live here the equator.
The length of their days and nights
doesn't change too much throughout the year.
But people who live farther North or South from the equator
will see significant changes in daylight
during the months ahead.
Alaska and Canada, northern Russia,
Sweden these areas will see a long, dark winter
without much sunshine.
It's the opposite for them in the summer
when the phrase land of the midnight sun
starts to make sense.
But if our friends in the far North
aren't looking forward to losing sunlight.
They can look forward to the geomagnetic storms
known as the Northern lights.
These are usually more active around the time
of the equinoxes according to a solar physicist interviewed
by CNN, so consolation prize.
An estimated 90% of all the people on the Earth
live in the Northern Hemisphere.
For many, there's a change of scenery that comes
with the change of seasons.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI: The term leaf peeping you often hear it from
say September through November, and it's that informal term
given to people who travel vast distances to get
a glimpse of the fall colors.
Certainly can feel the cool temperatures outside,
you can see the splash of colors beginning to take place,
but why does this all happen?
[music playing]
PEDRAM JAVAHERI: I want you to think
about leaves on a tree as essentially many solar panels.
What they're able to do is fascinating.
They are taking the sunlight in through a process known
as photosynthesis they're able to transfer the sun's energy,
and create a chemical known as chlorophyll.
Now, chlorophyll is key because it gives the leaves
its green colors during the long summer months,
but beneath the surface the leaves
actually always have the red, the oranges,
the yellows in place.
While chlorophyll is there, it's there, and it's green.
While it's taken away in the shorter days, and shorter
months of the autumn now you're releasing
some of the true colors back to the surface.
Of course, weather can play a role
in this as well, especially in the vibrancy of it.
When you have plenty of rainfall in the growing season
or in the spring season to be able to get
plenty of good colors in early September, October,
and November.
If you have extreme heat, extreme drought
in place maybe a freeze, early snowstorm, or even strong winds
certainly that can do damage.
The leaves will not be there for you
to see them in peak foliage.
So hopefully you get a chance to get out there this year
and enjoy the fall colors.
CARL AZUZ: Unless you're really up on your World War II,
history you may not be familiar with General Henry Hap Arnold.
He was commander of the US Army Air forces during that time.
He was taught to fly by the Wright brothers,
yeah those Wright brothers.
And as far as his thoughts on women in aviation went,
General Arnold expressed doubts about that at first
but later said, quote.
Now in 1944, it is on the record that women can fly
as well as men.
So how does that relate to something
taking place 77 years later?
Well, it starts with a young flyer named Zara Rutherford.
She's trying to set a new aviation world record that
would make her the youngest woman
ever to fly solo around the world.
CNN's Kim Brunhuber explores more reasons why
Rutherford is taking flight.
KIM BRUNHUBER: Zara Rutherford may be young,
but she's ready to saw off on an almost 30,000
nautical mile solo flight circling the globe.
If she succeeds this Belgian-British national
will become the youngest woman ever
to fly solo around the world, and the youngest person ever
to do it in a microlight airplane.
[airplane roars]
ZARA RUTHERFORD: So growing up, I
didn't really see many female pilots
or female computer scientists.
Those are two of my passions, and it's quite discouraging
when there's no one that can relate to you
that does any of those things.
So then I wanted to fly around the world
hopefully, have other girls see me,
and think I'd love to fly one day to.
KIM BRUNHUBER: Rutherford will be flying
a customized Shark ultralight, which is one
of the sponsors of her flight.
The route will begin in Brussels,
taking her across the Atlantic, over Greenland
and the Americas.
Traveling as far South as Colombia and Venezuela.
She'll then turn North toward the Bering Strait
where she'll cross into Russia, and fly
over South and Southeast Asia.
Then across Africa and the Middle East before returning
home.
She says the journey should take two or three months.
Her mission to close the gender gap in aviation.
ZARA RUTHERFORD: There is a difference in aviation
between men and women.
There's a lot less women in aviation
about commercial pilots 5% are women, which is, I mean,
is ridiculously small.
KIM BRUNHUBER: Rutherford takes after her parents, both of whom
are pilots.
Her mother Beatrice De Smet says she's nervous but proud.
BEATRICE DE SMET: When she first told me about it
my heart skipped a beat.
It took me a bit of time to digest,
and now I'm so proud and fully, fully behind her.
But as I said mixed feelings.
KIM BRUNHUBER: Rutherford hopes this trip can
inspire other girls to follow her path
both in life, and in the.
Air Kim Brunhuber, CNN.
[music playing]
CARL AZUZ: Usually when we show you superlatives
for the longest or highest bridge in the world
there's some spectacular scenery involved.
This one is over a highway, 14 lanes of traffic
in Ontario, Canada plus several train
tracks and a smaller road.
It's not brand new.
This pedestrian bridge was completed in 2018,
but since it stretches 820 feet long officials
said they didn't know of another one
that long anywhere else in the world.
So they applied for a Guinness World Record,
and they just got it.
The Pickering Pedestrian Bridge is
now officially the longest enclosed pedestrian bridge
on the planet.
It might not be over troubled water,
but it does look strong enough to trust.
Its builders have got to be beaming with pride for putting
a new record on deck, and then spanning
the world to win recognition for their superstructure.
Well, that's the abridged version anyway.
Batavia High School gets today's shout out.
Big hello to our viewers in Batavia,
New York who subscribed, and left
a comment at youtube.com/cnn10.
I'm Carl Azuz.
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