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CARL AZUZ: Hi, I'm Carl Azuz.
Welcome to our last show of the week.
We know many of you will be spending the next couple
of days digging out from a winter storm,
and we'll have a report on that in just a couple of minutes.
First, though, on Wednesday night,
US special forces targeted a terrorist leader
in northwestern Syria.
His name was Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi.
He'd been in charge of the ISIS terrorist group
since its former leader was killed more than a year ago.
Al-Qurashi died in the raid.
JOE BIDEN: Last night, operating on my orders,
the United States military forces successfully removed
a major terrorist threat to the world, a global leader of ISIS,
known as Haji Abdullah.
He took over as leader of ISIS in 2019.
Since then, ISIS has directed terrorist operations
targeting Americans, our allies and our partners,
and countless civilians in the Middle East, Africa,
and in South Asia.
CARL AZUZ: The president went on to say
that the reason US troops were directly involved in the raid
was to minimize the risk to civilians.
Their lives would have been in greater danger
if this had been an airstrike.
But at least 13 people, including some civilians,
were killed during and after the raid.
US officials say as American special forces approached,
al-Qurashi set off a suicide bomb that killed himself
and several members of his family.
All of the US troops involved returned safely,
though there was a mechanical problem with one
of the helicopters used in the raid,
and it had to be destroyed.
"ISIS" is an acronym for "Islamic
State in Iraq and Syria."
That's what the terrorist group wanted to create,
a theocracy in the Middle East based on its extremist
interpretation of Islam.
ISIS quickly took over large parts of the territory
in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
It was a violent group, infamous for murdering scores of people
who didn't share its beliefs.
But four years after it swept to control in the Middle East,
ISIS had faced relentless battles
involving local militias, US forces,
groups supported by America, and Iraqi government troops.
They'd all stepped up their fight against ISIS.
And in 2018, the terrorist group admitted it was losing.
Its former leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,
was killed in a US raid in northwestern Syria in 2019.
Wednesday's operation that killed al-Qurashi
was the biggest American raid in Syria since then.
More than 100 million people--
that's almost a third of the US population--
were under winter weather alerts yesterday.
A storm system affecting 25 states
was blasting its way across the country,
bringing sleet, snow, and ice from the Southwest
to the Northeast, from New Mexico to New Hampshire.
Roughly a quarter-million homes and businesses
lost electricity Thursday.
Ice was threatening trees and power lines.
Thousands of flights were canceled across the country,
more than 3,800 of them.
That was the most since last February.
20 inches of snow piled up in part of Colorado,
while a foot of it coated areas in Illinois and Indiana.
And the Northeast is bracing for snowfall expected
to last through Friday.
Here's CNN 10 contributor Tyler Mauldin
with more on winter storms.
TYLER MAULDIN: Snowstorms and cold fronts
go hand-in-hand during the winter season.
Every week during this time of the year.
A weather system is sure to form and bring
wintry mischief to someone.
Not every snowstorm is the same, though.
Some can be light, some can be heavy.
Some can be dangerous and others fun.
When you think of intense snowstorms,
you think of terms like lake effect snow and blizzards.
However, there's another type that is equally
as dangerous, snow squalls.
A snow squall is similar to a blizzard, in that you need
winds of at least 35 miles per hour and visibility
of less than a quarter of a mile.
But squalls only last 30 minutes,
unlike a blizzard that has to last for at least three hours.
Squalls are also followed by a flash freeze,
because they're associated with Arctic fronts.
So an intense line of blinding snow
pushes through, and is immediately
followed by a huge drop in temperatures,
causing everything to freeze almost instantaneously.
Squalls also have a long history of causing major car accidents,
due to the poor visibility and freeze,
making being out on the road driving the worst place
to be during a snow squall.
Back in January of 2015, whiteout conditions
were blamed for shutting down Interstate 94
after nearly 200 vehicles were involved
in a chain-reaction pileup.
Thankfully, the National Weather Service
recently started issuing snow squall
warnings to help keep you safe.
CARL AZUZ: 10-second trivia!
In 1888, America's first vending machine dispensed what product?
Chocolate, cigarettes, gum, or soap?
The Thomas Adams Gum Company used a vending machine to sell
its product on train platforms.
It was not the first vending machine ever.
Historians say a Greek inventor named Hero of Alexandria
created a device that would dispense holy water
after people deposited a coin.
Of course, vending machines have come a long way since then.
They're especially popular in Japan, where they dispense
everything from eggs and flowers to T-shirts and hot dogs,
and inventive ideas are surfacing
on how to use existing vending machines in ways
they haven't been used before.
- When COVID first hit Japan, this vending machine
helped Sugaku Matsuno's shop Mousseline stay afloat,
one chiffon cake at a time.
Customers could buy her products without human interaction
whenever they wanted.
After installing the machine, sales eventually increased 20%.
SUGAKO MATSUNO: [speaking japanese]
INTERPRETER: If I had spent my life just waiting
for customers, I would have lost my mind
and not been able to continue this business.
The vending machine relieved that stress.
- Vending machines are a staple in Japan.
There are over 5.5 million of them in the country, one
for every 23 people, the highest ratio in the world.
And while it helped Matsuno's shop,
experts say the overall industry took a hit during the pandemic.
DOMINIK STEINER: People started working from home
and the commuter traffic collapsed,
and hence there's nobody walking by the vending machines.
- Tech firm VPC Asia has been working in the vending machine
industry for five years.
It developed this device that helps upgrade older machines
by connecting them to the internet,
allowing access to the machines without having
to touch or be near it.
Customers can buy its products and check
what's for sale using their smartphones,
while operators can find out when
and what products are out of stock, allowing them to route
trucks more efficiently.
Beyond these uses, Steiner says there's even more potential
for innovation, opting to look at the machines as real estate.
DOMINIK STEINER: There are so many,
and they're in prime locations.
And so what else can they do other than just
selling the drinks or the food?
- By including additional sensors, cameras,
and other types of tech, Steiner says the machines could serve
various purposes, from marketing, data, storage
weather, forecasting, noise analysis for crime prevention,
to earthquake monitoring.
DOMINIK STEINER: The vibration, we can monitor earthquakes.
We cannot predict earthquake, but we can warn.
We have millions of spots in Japan,
and we can see where an earthquake comes from
and maybe gain 10, 20 seconds.
The platform is ready for all of these, meaning we've built it,
we've tested it, we've designed it, it's all there.
- While the tech may be ready, there's
still a ways to go before we could see it on the market.
Steiner says it still needs buy-in from all
the different stakeholders.
DOMINIK STEINER: The issue is how
it integrates into the existing systems, into the society.
Are they ready to use that data for earthquake
or crime prevention?
That is something that will take not months, but years.
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CARL AZUZ: From the "don't try this at home" category
comes a new creation by an ultimate Star Wars
fan, a real-life lightsaber.
A Russian YouTuber created a hydrogen and oxygen burner.
It shoots out a plasma blade that's hotter than 5,000
degrees Fahrenheit.
It can cut through steel.
It earned him a Guinness World Record
for a handheld retractable lightsaber.
The downside?
Well, it's dangerous, and it only holds enough gas
to burn for 30 seconds.
Other than that, what's not to Luke?
A lot of people Obi-Want one, but it Kenobi harmful and Lando
you in a lot of big trouble.
So maybe we should get Chewbacca to playing
with the plastic kind of Mandalor-again.
Especially if you're on the Jabba,
you can't be cashing in on Tarr something that
can lead to General Grievance.
My name is Carl Azuz.
Today's shoutout goes out to Athens
Drive Magnet High School.
It is located in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Fridays awesome!
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