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COY WIRE: Hello, CNN 10 family.
Wonderful Wednesday to you.
I'm Coy Wire.
Thank you for making us part of your day.
Only 550 more seconds left in this show, so let's
make the most of them.
And let's go.
Now, we start with some concerning moments
for the people of Japan.
On Tuesday, Japan urged its residents
to take shelter after North Korea fired a ballistic missile
over the country for the first time in five years
and without Warning
The action prompted immediate backlash
from neighboring South Korea and allies around the world.
The missile is a potentially dangerous escalation
of recent weapons tests by the Kim Jong-un regime,
which governs North Korea.
The country has been conducting a lot of missile tests.
There have been five launches in the past 10 days.
And Tuesday's launch marked their 23rd missile test
this year.
There were no reports of damage but the unannounced missile
triggered a rare nationwide alert system in Japan.
Experts say that Tuesday's launch
could be the start of more intense actions
from North Korea.
The president of South Korea said
that North Korea will have to, quote,
"pay the price for their actions."
But the ability to punish North Korea
is limited because of resistance from China and Russia.
Next up, we'll go to the country of Somalia
where families are wondering when or if their next meal will
come.
The East African nation is facing tremendous drought
and the effects have been devastating.
While the threat of famine looms with extreme scarcity of food,
people are already starving.
Parents and children are having to journey
two hours at times just to get fresh water to drink.
Half the population need humanitarian assistance.
All this is happening while Somalia still hasn't even
fully recovered from the last regional drought in 2017
or from the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
More for us now from CNN International
correspondent Larry Madowo.
LARRY MADOWO: This is what I'm hearing
from every Somali official I've spoken to
and every aid worker there.
This is one of the worst droughts they have ever seen.
And the effects are heartbreaking.
But with so much else happening in the world, suffering Somalis
can get forgotten.
Right now, about half of the population in Somalia
need humanitarian assistance.
And it could get worse.
The country country's gone two years without rains
and is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years.
Aid agencies say around 7 million Somalis are projected
to face food insecurity.
Even animals struggle to survive.
But it's not just supplies at home that are an issue.
The battle against the armed group Al-Shabaab
makes delivering aid hard.
And the war in Ukraine has sent food prices soaring.
But help is coming.
More than 70% of the $1.4 billion in aid for Somalia
has been raised mostly by the US.
And just this month, Ukraine pledged 50,000 tons of wheat
to both Somalia and Ethiopia, much like this shipment which
docked in Djibouti last month.
Somalia is already suffering from the impacts
of the global pandemic.
But add to that, the effect of Russia's invasion of Ukraine
on food supplies, but especially the severe drought
has brought the country to the brink.
The situation is so desperate that if nothing
changes, more people could die.
That is why that funding they're looking for
will be so critical.
Larry Madowo, CNN, London.
COY WIRE: 10-second trivia.
In carpentry, what term means to cut a sloping
angle that is not 90 degrees--
inlay, counterbore, or crosscut, or bevel?
If you said bevel, put your hands up, you are right.
We are thrilled now to introduce you to one of our CNN
Heroes, Nora El-Khouri Spencer.
She's closing the opportunity gap
by training women for careers in construction
and helping them build new lives.
Her nonprofit, Hope Renovations, offers free programs preparing
women with the skills and certifications
they need to find high-paying jobs in construction.
NORA EL-KHOURI SPENCER: I wasn't a handy person growing up.
If my parents needed something fixed,
they would ask my brother.
And they just never asked me.
When my husband Brian and I bought our first home,
I realized pretty quickly that my tastes
were outside of my budget.
So I just started buying tools and trying
to learn things on my own.
And I figured out pretty quick that I was good at it.
Over the years, I'd hire contractors to help me do
things I didn't know how to do.
And actually, I learned a lot.
And then it hit me that I had never met another woman.
In my mid-30s I decided to go back to school
and get a master's in social work.
I was doing a field placement in a homeless shelter,
working with women who needed a good living
wage paying opportunity.
And I would talk to them about jobs in this industry.
And their reaction was always, no one's
ever taught me any of that stuff, it's a man's job.
And I realized there's an opportunity gap.
That's a gap I can help fill.
We're going to talk about roof framing
and putting the sheathing on the roof today.
So we're going to go ahead and plan that out.
Hope Renovations, we offer a 10-week
pre-apprenticeship program.
They learn safety, tools and materials, blueprint
reading, construction math.
- Have you got all that?
- Got this.
- All right, so let's go put it into practice.
NORA EL-KHOURI SPENCER: And then they get into hands-on practice
with tools.
They learn the basics of carpentry,
electrical, plumbing.
It's a lot of work.
- We're going to figure out where our birds
mouse are going to go.
NORA EL-KHOURI SPENCER: Our program is totally free.
We've had single moms, women in recovery, women
who are just re-careering.
All kinds of different people coming together and finding
a shared excitement.
Our program is actually solving two problems at once.
We are bringing women into this industry.
And we're also helping older adults age in place.
The crews here today building a ramp
for a client who she was having trouble getting into her home.
- I've been here since 1975.
And I have arthritis real bad in my knees.
It was very hard trying to get in and out because I didn't
have anything to hold on to.
NORA EL-KHOURI SPENCER: We're able to bring
the trainees out onto job sites with our construction team.
So they can get their hands dirty.
They can practice their new found skills.
- This is where it gets fun.
NORA EL-KHOURI SPENCER: So they're giving
back while they're learning.
That's really a win-win.
If we don't see women out there doing this, other women,
they'll never see this as an opportunity.
So that's a big part of what we're trying to do here.
- And they just like they're having fun doing it.
I want to thank you all for all your help
and all your beautiful smiles.
I'm so grateful just to know that there's some people
out here that cares.
And I won't ever forget all you women.
I'll tell anybody.
You want to see ramp built, come to my house.
I'll tell you who built it.
NORA EL-KHOURI SPENCER: When you're out there
and you get to watch something come together that you built.
- Wonderful.
NORA EL-KHOURI SPENCER: Does that feel like it's
going to work for you?
- Yes.
NORA EL-KHOURI SPENCER: Great.
- This is awesome.
NORA EL-KHOURI SPENCER: There's just such
a feeling of accomplishment.
We are providing hope to the people that we serve.
That's a lot of lives changed.
I love that part of it.
We're helping them renovate their lives.
COY WIRE: For today's 10 out of 10,
we're taking you to the small town
in Kentucky called Lake Malone, where something is askew.
In the woods, you will find these creatures
that mysteriously popped up sometime last year.
Locals call these statues the big twigs.
And these things are big.
The tallest stands at a whopping 18 feet tall.
Three of them were first introduced to the area in 2021.
And locals didn't even really know where they came from.
But recently, three more have appeared.
And park officials say that these artists
creations have increased park visitation tremendously.
Also, tremendous, the Globe Academy in Atlanta, Georgia,
we see you.
And one more thing before we go, did you know that today is
National Do Something Nice Day?
So whether it's a kind word or two or just a simple smile,
do the little things that make this world a better place.
I'm Coy Wire.
And this is "CNN 10."
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