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CARL AZUZ: Hi, I'm Carl Azuz.
Got some quick hitting headlines to start today's show.
So let's get to it.
First, the US government has made
a COVID vaccine available for children ages five to 11.
This is for a shot from the company's Pfizer and BioNTech.
It has been authorized for emergency use,
which means it can now be given to kids
during the ongoing pandemic.
But it's not the same as full government
approval, which requires more research and testing.
The vaccine comes in two shots, given at least 21 days apart.
After that, a child is considered fully vaccinated.
The dose for younger children is one third of that given
to people ages 12 and older.
Pfizer hopes the smaller dose will reduce
any potential side effects.
The company says its vaccines more than 90%
effective in preventing kids from getting
sick from COVID-19.
And US President Joe Biden called the vaccine safe
and said it's a major step forward in the country's
fight to defeat coronavirus.
But while the Food and Drug Administration voted 17
to zero to authorize the vaccine,
one of the doctors on the panel said it was a tough decision,
acknowledging that serious side effects are possible
and saying officials would never know
for sure how safe the vaccine would be
unless they started giving it.
Safety and a lack of information about potential long term
effects are reasons why some Americans are hesitant to get
a COVID vaccine.
Health officials say the disease's
overall survival rate is higher in children than in adults.
Next, Tuesday's edition of our show
explored the significance of two US gubernatorial elections.
In Virginia, CNN projects that businessman Glenn Youngkin,
a republican, has defeated former Governor
Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat.
In New Jersey, the race was still too close to call
when we produced this show.
A razor thin number of votes separated
incumbent Phil Murphy, a democrat,
from Republican and businessman Jack Ciattarelli, a Republican.
These two particular elections are seen as indicators of how
Americans might vote in next year's
midterm congressional elections.
Finally, we've been discussing inflation this year,
the rising prices of the things we buy.
One place people have noticed this is in their grocery bills.
And the "New York Times" says Americans should plan
for the most expensive Thanksgiving meal
in the history of the holiday.
CHRISTINE ROMANS: Inflation is your uninvited guest
for the holidays this year.
Ag economists are saying, grocery stores
are saying they expect a run on turkeys, a run on birds
as people gather again this year.
Take a look at this.
We're expecting the price to top a record high of $1.36
per pound this holiday season.
That's nearly 22 bucks for a 16 pound Turkey.
Your sides, that's a problem too.
All of those prices are rising.
For potatoes, for biscuits, for vegetables, and apples.
All of these are up since last Thanksgiving.
Potato prices up 3 and 1/2%, biscuits up 4%.
That's just since last year.
Mixed vegetables up almost 4%.
Those apples to make your signature pie up nearly 8%.
And driving over the river and through the woods
to grandmother's house is more expensive
this year because of the surge in gas prices.
The national average for a gallon of gas, $3.40 right now.
Look at the difference from last year.
It's up some 38%.
So why?
We've been talking about this.
The global supply chain is still a tangled mess.
More people are expected to gather this year.
That means more demand.
There are labor shortages, high transportation costs,
bad weather affecting herding crops around the country.
The early bird in this case gets the turkey.
Ag economists warn the risk is everyone
at the same time will be trying to buy their ingredients.
Be flexible, shop now.
If you wait, you might not get that size bird you want.
Heritage birds may not be available near you.
Or they might not be in your budget.
So that means get shopping.
The National Grocers Association says there is plenty
of food in the supply chain.
But consumers should secure those
must haves in a timely fashion to have the favorites
on the holiday table.
CARL AZUZ: 10 second trivia.
Which of these countries has the highest
population density, India, Israel, Singapore, or Bahrain?
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In terms of density, the answer is
Singapore, though India has the largest overall population
on this list.
Behind China, India has the second largest population
on Earth with more than 1.3 billion people,
and many of them are breathing unhealthy air.
In fact, of the 30 most polluted urban areas on the planet,
22 of them are in India.
There's been a bit of a break this year.
The seasonal monsoon rains lasted longer than usual.
And India has been swept by more wind than usual.
That's given the 31 million people
who live in the capital of New Delhi
their cleanest air in years according
to the Reuters news agency.
But that's expected to change this month.
India's air quality typically gets worse in the fall
after the winds die down, colder air moves in,
and farmers get rid of their leftover crop
stubble by burning it.
Add that to other types of waste burning, traffic pollution,
road and construction dust, and you
have a problem that various efforts haven't
been able to solve in the past.
Still, new ideas on how to improve India's air
are always being developed.
VEDIKA SUD: These sprawling farmlands
near India's national capital, New Delhi,
will soon be spewing thick plumes of smoke.
Year after year, the toxic haze in parts of northern India
is so dense it can be seen from outer space.
Agricultural residues, in this case rice straws,
is burned by thousands of farmers
to clear the fields for winter crops.
Many farmers opt to burn the stubble,
which often leads to high levels of pollution in the region.
30-year-old Indian Vidyut Mohan is hoping to bring back
cleaner air through sustainable energy
to Delhi and its neighborhood.
Along with his co-founder, Vidyut developed a small scale
portable machine in the year 2018
that converts agricultural waste into biofuel.
VIDYUT MOHAN: We feed an agricultural waste,
such as coconut shells, or rice straws, or rice husks
into the machine.
It undergoes a isothermal process just like the process
of roasting coffee.
It's called torrefaction.
And what that does is it takes out low energy containing
molecules in the form of gases and leaves
behind a dense carbon rich material, which is then
conveyed, cooled, and packaged to be
used to make viable products such as fuels and fertilizers.
VEDIKA SUD: The process of removing
moisture from a biomass to create bio coal is not new.
Some observers say the high costs of creating
scalable solutions have so far prevented
the widespread adoption of torrefaction.
But Vidyut is confident his device will be more affordable.
A pilot run of the machine's latest version
is also being tested in a forest area on the pacific west coast.
The team along with state forest officials
is currently looking into converting wood based residues
into marketable products.
VIDYUT MOHAN: As compared to open burning
of agricultural waste, our equipment prevents
up to 90% of smoke emissions.
- [non-english speech]
VEDIKA SUD: Rural farmer [inaudible]
says burning of crop residue is making their lands barren,
but remains the cheapest option.
Mohan's sustainable technology could
be a game changer for the farmer community
and provide additional revenue.
- [non-english speech]
- This will help us the most.
They have told us to give them the crop stubble
and they will give us carbonized fertilizer,
which will reduce our costs as farmers and help our crops.
There will be lots of benefits.
- [non-english speech]
VEDIKA SUD: The young Indian's efforts
have already been recognized by the United
Nations Environment Program.
He was also recently awarded Prince William's
inaugural Earthshot Prize.
Mohan's low cost innovation should hit the Indian market
within a year.
He believes 100 million tons of carbon dioxide
can be reduced annually, a hopeful solution that could
break India's toxic smog chain.
Vedika Sud, CNN New Delhi.
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CARL AZUZ: Don't know if this actually happened
during Taco Tuesday on the ISS.
But we do know that astronauts recently enjoyed a taco dinner
after harvesting a mini crop of chili peppers grown
in the orbiting laboratory.
It took a while, four months to grow the peppers in space.
And while they were enjoyed by astronauts who can lose some
of their ability to taste and smell in zero gravity,
they'll be studied for their viability
on long term space missions.
Now let's taco moment to cook up a few corny puns.
They're always flowery here.
They help season our show.
And one without puns like a space station without peppers,
just I-S isn't as flavorful.
Have you ever salsa such a thing as space tacos?
We hear they're out of this world.
I'm Carl Azuz and they're the beef on CNN 10.
Nevada High School, yes that's pronounced Nevada,
thank you for watching from Nevada, Missouri.
We hope you and everyone else enjoyed the show.
And we look forward to seeing you right back here tomorrow.
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