[music playing]
CARL AZUZ: Course and sea lions, two things you
wouldn't expect to interact.
How and where that's happening is coming up.
I'm Carl Azuz.
Our first topic concerns the US economy.
What happens with it doesn't only apply to Americans,
it can impact many more people around the world.
And one indicator, one measure of that economy
is the US stock market.
April was not a good month for it.
In that 30-day period, several major US stock indexes
saw their worst decreases since March of 2020
when the COVID pandemic was sinking in.
And the NASDAQ, a Stock Exchange that includes tech companies
like Amazon, Apple, and Google, saw its biggest drop
since October of 2008 when the Great
Recession was taking place.
A lot of things contributed, COVID cases
have been increasing in China.
And that country is so populated and so economically powerful
that it's strict lockdown policies
don't only hit the Chinese economy,
they can affect others as well.
The ongoing war in Ukraine is creating global uncertainty.
Investors don't like that.
The US Federal Reserve is planning to raise interest
rates again that might help reduce inflation
but also might reduce economic growth.
And the fears of a recession, a decline in the nation's economy
are also hurting stocks.
Another economic indicator is the US government's
monthly jobs report.
The newest one will have information from April
and it's due out later this week.
American employers have added several hundred thousand
jobs each month this year.
And the unemployment rate, the percentage
of workers who don't have a job has been steadily decreasing.
Both good economic signs.
But while Americans average wages have also
been increasing, They haven't risen
enough to keep pace with inflation, the hike in prices
for many things we buy.
Last year, inflation rates rose to their highest
level in decades.
They've only gotten worse in 2022
and that's having ripple effects across the economy.
At Stellina's Pizzeria in DC, the food
has been hot and the tip steady throughout the pandemic.
TOM FOREMAN: Have the tips been good during the pandemic?
- Oh, for sure.
TOM FOREMAN: But now the staff, suppliers, customers, everyone
is facing a tipping point.
And service workers in some places are paying the price.
Just ask Isabella Sarmiento, the operations manager.
Tipping has grown a lot more complicated.
ISABELLA SARMIENTO: It has.
You are not wrong.
[laughs]
TOM FOREMAN: The pandemic, by many accounts,
pushed tips to new prominence in home deliveries,
at takeout stands, food trucks, and in ride sharing services
far beyond the spots where many consumers
were used to seeing them.
At the New York Times, food writer Christina Morales
says, that's left a lot of folks wondering where to tip, when,
and how much.
CHRISTINA MORALES: What's driving really
a lot of this anxiety and confusion
is the fact that these changes in tipping
have happened so fast.
TOM FOREMAN: She says, even the social norms for tipping
have become unsettled.
Noting one company, which tracks credit card transactions
found tips rose as the pandemic began, then
leveled off, and now are falling amid the confusion
and inflation.
So should you tip it a coffee stand, a supermarket,
a convenience store?
ANKUR BHALLA: I'm a good tipper.
TOM FOREMAN: Some customers say, it's simple.
If someone helps you, tip.
If you help yourself--
ANKUR BHALLA: I was at the airport
and I grabbed a bottle of water from like a convenience store
and asked me for a tip?
And I was like, that's not happening.
TOM FOREMAN: To make it all clearer,
Stellina's now puts a 20% service charge on your bill.
That is the tip.
Unless you want add a little more.
CHRISTINA MORALES: For me, I personally evaluate
the service that I'm receiving.
And I also take into account the person behind the counter
and I say, how much could they possibly be making.
ISABELLA SARMIENTO: Just to understand like,
I think we're all just trying to do what's
best for the people around us.
TOM FOREMAN: That's a good tip.
ISABELLA SARMIENTO: Thanks.
TOM FOREMAN: Inflation is just complicating things more
as people count every dollar and try
to make every dollar count on both sides of the tipping wall.
Tom Foreman, CNN Washington.
CARL AZUZ: Ten second trivia--
which of these countries is made up of two main islands
and about 600 smaller ones?
Indonesia, Philippines, New Zealand, or Hispaniola?
It's the two main islands, the North and the South,
that distinguished New Zealand from other island countries.
[music playing]
There's a species of sea lion, the New Zealand sea lion that
is only found in that country.
And according to New Zealand's government,
it's one of the rarest types of sea lion on the planet.
There are an estimated 12,000 of them.
They are endangered.
The threats they face include everything from diseases
and lack of food to being caught by accident
in the fishing industry, and even road accidents.
These animals like to move inland
and they're encountering cars, people, and dogs along the way.
But this isn't a report about what's killing them off,
it's about what's bringing them back to New Zealand's South
Island, and what's being done to help them
and people live together.
- As a volunteer with New Zealand Sea Lion Trust,
Hannah Yeardley is monitoring the sea Lions
where she lives near the Otago Peninsula
on the country's South Island.
HANNAH YEARDLEY: It's kind of like babysitting you know,
especially when they're pregnant or they have pups,
you kind of make sure that someone's at least, seeing them
or checked up on them during the day.
There it is, having a way to stretch.
- These pups are part of a new generation of sea lions
that have returned to this coast after a long absence.
[music playing]
Driven off the mainland over a century ago by hunting,
New Zealand sea lions survived on sub-Antarctic Islands
until one day in 1993.
JIM FYFE: A female from the Auckland islands
hit a pup here on the mainland and she
proceeded to have 11 pups.
So essentially, this one female was
responsible for bringing back a population of sea lions
to Otago.
- That's pivotal sea lion was named "Mum."
She left behind a dynasty of sea lions
that continues to thrive on this coast today.
But they don't just stick to this coastline.
JIM FYFE: They really push inland as far as they can
and that usually puts them up against a road.
You take care around those roads.
And so actually, one of the biggest threats
are some of those modes of transport.
- The sea lions have returned to a very different coastline
to the one they left over 100 years
ago, one with crowded beaches.
Keeping them safe is the job of Biodiversity Ranger Jim Fyfe.
JIM FYFE: Humans love to go to the beach at summer.
The young sea lions are really curious and playful.
They know that the surfers are there having fun as well.
And so they want to join in there.
Their social animals.
Our advice is that you just don't interact with them.
Just ignore them and get on with what you're doing.
Hello.
- Despite their recovery here, New Zealand sea lions
are one of the world's rarest sea lion species,
facing threats from disease and accidental
capture in local fisheries.
That makes protecting this burgeoning
population even more important.
And that's where local residents come in.
JIM FYFE: Communities usually, once they start
to learn about them, take a real interest
and are really protective of the sea lions that are
breeding in the communities.
- You squeeze through there?
Come on.
JIM FYFE: People are just surprised to find these animals
in their backyard.
[music playing]
- This year, 21 lion pups were born on the Otago Peninsula 56.
It's the highest number since they returned to these shores
and will keep sea lion babysitters like Yeardley
busy for years to come.
HANNAH YEARDLEY: It's very cold because you're going to get
to see them with faces again.
Once you get to know them, sea lions do have personalities.
It's just seeing them, enjoying them while respecting
their space of course.
That's the thing that I enjoy the most.
[music playing]
CARL AZUZ: Even in South Dakota, you're not building
a snowman in 60 degree weather.
That's why this came as a surprise
to residents of an assisted living
center who woke up last week to see this in the yard.
The snow had been imported.
A local man had been away at a meeting
in the mountains of Western South Dakota when they
were smacked by a snowstorm.
So he shoveled a bunch of it into his pickup truck,
drove back home to the Eastern part of the State,
and he and his daughter gave frosty new life outside a care
center in Sioux Falls.
Well, the sun was hot that day, but they still had
some fun before he melted away.
Of course, the scene looked more like a Winter
Wonderland that's more common in the bleak midwinter.
But the effort made it a Silent Night,
brought a little joy to the world for those who still
needed a little Christmas at springtime, even
if critics would have rather deck
the halls with a hippopotamus.
Wall High School, you guys are awesome.
Shout out to our viewers in Wall, New Jersey.
The one and only place we look for your shout out
requests is youtube.com/CNN10.
I'm Carl Azuz.
[music playing]