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CARL AZUZ: Thanks for tuning in to our midweek edition
of CNN 10.
My name is Carl Azuz.
We hope you're doing well.
We mentioned yesterday how flooding in part of California
had worsened the state's high gasoline prices.
Across California's northern border,
that flooding has washed out roads,
triggered evacuations, and closed state parks in Oregon.
And across Oregon's northern border,
days of heavy rain and wind have caused a state of emergency
in Washington.
There's been flooding all over the Western part of the state.
Mudslides triggered the closure of a section of Interstate 5,
a major road that runs from Canada to Mexico.
And officials have quickly set up
shelters for the hundreds of people who've
had to leave their homes.
Coast Guard helicopters are helping
out with the rescue effort.
Officials have needed to use boats
where cars typically drive.
The power has gone out for tens of thousands
of homes and businesses.
And in some areas, the water's been too high for utility
workers to restore electricity.
At one point, record flooding was expected along the banks
of the Skagit River.
But on Tuesday, its waters in the city of Mount Vernon
appeared to top out at just over 35 feet.
That was two feet shorter than the record
flood stage it reached in 1990.
Still, the city advised its 35,000 residents
to evacuate or take steps to protect their families, homes,
and property from floodwaters.
In another county nearby, one resident
said she and others had set up sandbags
to do that but that those were pushed away from people's
houses and down a nearby river.
With more rain expected over the next few days,
parts of Washington will stay under a flood warning
until at least Wednesday afternoon.
What the state of emergency there and in 14 counties
will do is speed up government aid to those who were affected.
From the Western United States, we're
taking you to the Western border of Belarus
to update you on the ongoing crisis involving
Belarusian officials, border officials from Poland,
and thousands of migrants.
Poland is a member of the European Union,
and that's where the migrants want to settle.
They're mostly from the war-torn nations
of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria according to Polish officials.
Poland, with the support of the European Union,
has refused to allow the migrants to cross the border.
European officials blame Belarus for causing
this crisis by illegally encouraging the migrants
to press into Poland.
Belarus says it's Poland's fault for illegally pushing
the migrants back into Belarus.
CNN's Matthew Chance reports from the Belarusian side
of the border.
MATTHEW CHANCE: Very dramatic scenes
playing out as you can see.
The migrants, angry at their reception
by the Polish authorities and being disallowed
from getting back and getting into the European Union,
have reacted angrily.
They've started throwing stones.
Oh, my God, we've been blasted by water cannon
from the Polish side.
Tear gas has been thrown as well.
There are flash bangs going off.
You can see a helicopter up there
to push back the protesters, who are over here as I show them
here in their makeshift camp near the border fence
throwing stones and charging the barricades that
are being manned by the Polish border authority.
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MOHAMED ABU ZEID: We have successfully
managed to incorporate it into concrete.
The addition of masks and gloves into the concrete
is a big plus for the environment.
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It reserves our resources of natural aggregates,
and then we make different samples like cubes.
And we test them.
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The key takeaway from this project
is that our students responded to the needs of the society
in a time of crisis.
The concrete they have produced have not yet
been into buildings, but we are on the right track
of doing that.
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CARL AZUZ: 10-Second Trivia.
What would you find about 240 miles above Earth's surface?
Exosphere, Hubble telescope, stratosphere, or ISS?
The International Space Station orbits about
240 miles above our heads.
And the seven people in it were directed to take shelter
earlier this week, suiting up and getting
into their spacecraft that are docked with the station
as it passed near the debris of a Russian satellite.
That satellite had been in orbit since 1982.
Russia intentionally blew it up this week
as part of a missile test.
NASA says the strike created a debris field with hundreds
of satellite and missile pieces now
orbiting the Earth that threaten current and future missions
to space.
Workers aboard the ISS temporarily
moved to their spacecraft in case
the debris damaged the ISS, and they had to leave it.
When the threat decreased, they returned to their mission.
US officials strongly criticized the Russian missile test,
calling it dangerous and saying America wouldn't
tolerate actions like it.
Russia, which currently has two cosmonauts aboard the ISS,
says safety has always been its top priority
and that it would prevent all threats
to the ISS and its crew.
Looking beyond the Space Station,
NASA just announced that its plan to return to the moon
has been delayed.
A new budget report says the mission named
Artemis is now expected to cost $93 billion
through the next few years.
And while it had an initial goal of putting boots on lunar soil
again in 2024, NASA says it'll probably miss
that target by several years.
Meantime, some of those who've already boldly gone where few
have gone before were honored at NASA's Hall
of Fame ceremony last weekend.
- 2, 1, 0, and liftoff.
KRISTIN FISHER: If it takes the right stuff to become a NASA
astronaut, it takes even more of it
to make it into the Astronaut Hall of Fame.
[applause]
These are the record setters, the barrier breakers.
And three more have just been inducted
into this exclusive club.
- Here we have Michael Lopez-Alegría.
KRISTIN FISHER: Mike LA, as he's known,
is the second most experienced spacewalker in the world.
- Liftoff.
KRISTIN FISHER: A veteran of four spaceflights,
he's performed 10 spacewalks totaling nearly 68 hours
outside a space shuttle or station, more
than any other NASA astronaut.
And he's not done yet.
Next year, Mike LA will command a private mission
to the International Space Station.
- But as magnificent as it is, the ISS is a machine.
And one day, it will wear out.
So what's the solution?
A commercial space station, preferably more than one
with multiple customers where the government is only one
of them.
- Our pilot, Pam Melroy.
KRISTIN FISHER: The second inductee
flew three missions to help build the International Space
Station.
Pam Melroy is one of only two women
to ever command a space shuttle mission.
PAM MELROY: Thank you to everybody
for a beautiful vehicle and a beautiful mission.
KRISTIN FISHER: She was also only
the second woman in the Air Force to be a test pilot.
Now she's leading NASA as the agency's deputy administrator.
PAM MELROY: This has been a pretty amazing year for me.
So we're poised to return to the moon.
We hope to light that candle and celebrate the launch of Artemis
1 in just a few months.
KRISTIN FISHER: A few months in space
is nothing for the third and final inductee.
Scott Kelly is famous for spending a year in space.
SCOTT KELLY: It seemed like I'd lived
there forever, seemed longer than I thought it would be.
KRISTIN FISHER: Kelly's a veteran of four spaceflights
totaling 520 days in space and traveling more than 200
million miles, more than twice the distance
from the Earth to the sun.
SCOTT KELLY: It's really odd for me to be standing here today.
Because when I was a kid, I wasn't too sure
I would accomplish much of anything.
KRISTIN FISHER: But along with his brother and fellow
astronaut Senator Mark Kelly, Scott became one of the most
famous astronauts in the world.
- There are limitless possibilities
because of the endless inspiration
found among these giants.
KRISTIN FISHER: Kristin Fisher, CNN Washington.
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CARL AZUZ: Pumpkin smashing rates a 10 out of 10 today.
We're not saying kids should try this at home,
but kids did recently get to take a bat or a hammer
to their past-date pumpkins at a farm in Missouri.
Why?
Well, fall is winding down.
So this is a way to gear up for winter.
And the farm plans to recycle the gashed gourds,
the smashed pumpkins, the fouled fruit, the jacked-up jack
o' lanterns by feeding them to livestock
or using them as compost.
After all the Halloween stories we ran, I'm running
short on "pun-kins."
They don't exactly grow on trees, you know.
And while I have a vine time delivering them,
it takes a gourd amount of effort to grow them.
So maybe I ought to just plant the idea that we hire a jack
ole intern to help write.
Before we go, we want to write in the students
of West Academy High School, who are watching
from Newton, Iowa, today.
I'm Carl Azuz.
Thank you all for checking out CNN.
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