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COY WIRE: Hello, everyone.
Terrific Tuesday to you.
I'm Coy Wire.
And we've got a rendezvous with the news, so let's go.
We're going to begin with news on the economy
regarding the most wonderful time of the year--
the holiday season.
Traditionally, a big season for shopping as well.
This year, many shoppers are returning
to their pre-pandemic routines, going back nearly three years
now.
Shoppers are expected to shop big around some key dates
like Black Friday last week, but they're also
predicted to make major purchases later in the shopping
season, hoping to land deals.
This year, inflation has limited many shoppers budgets though.
But retailer experts say that customers are pulling back
on discretionary spending, like furniture and electronics,
and are being more selective about what they buy.
Many Americans are dipping into their savings accounts
and racking up debt to make purchases as well.
They're also utilizing services like buy now, pay later, which
is a type of installment loan people
might use instead of a traditional credit card.
Let's break it down by the numbers.
Online Black Friday sales in the United States
topped a record breaking $9 billion this year
and were over 2% higher compared to last year.
US shoppers spent a record $5.29 billion on Thanksgiving
day, up nearly 3% from a year ago.
Experts are predicting that American shoppers
spent more than $9.5 billion across Saturday and Sunday.
And that Monday will be the biggest online shopping
day again, growing more than 5% from last year to $11 billion.
But some of that growth reflects higher
prices, not necessarily higher volume,
due to inflation this year.
VANESSA YURKEVICH: On this year's holiday
shopping menu, more sales but with a healthy side
of inflation.
Cutting off your circulation.
DENISE SALLETTE: It's going crazy.
VANESSA YURKEVICH: Denise Sallette
is in the middle of her holiday shopping
at Willowbrook mall in Wayne, New Jersey.
DENISE SALLETTE: This is for my mom.
And then I got stuff for my kids and my niece.
And oh, my god.
VANESSA YURKEVICH: But this year, the wish list
is looking a little different.
Last month, inflation cooled but was still running hot at 7.7%
year over year.
DENISE SALLETTE: So I've had to cut back on shopping
because things are too expensive.
I mean, I do have three girls.
They do understand that, you know, times are hard right now,
and it's just me being a single mom.
VANESSA YURKEVICH: Despite high inflation,
the National Retail Federation estimates that nearly 8 million
more people will shop between Black Friday and Cyber Monday
and spend up to 8% more this year than they did last year.
MATTHEW SHAY: We're looking at records in all categories.
It is remarkable in the face of the cost and the price
pressures that consumers are still finding a way
to increase their spending, power the economy,
drive economic activity.
VANESSA YURKEVICH: Last month, retail sales beat expectations,
up 1.3% in October.
But this month, consumer sentiment fell.
Still, higher prices haven't stopped
some people from shopping.
Has that impacted the way you're going
to spend this holiday season?
CYNTHIA PENDELTON: For me, not really because I
try not to overspend anyways.
So even before this is going on, I try
not to exceed what I can do.
VANESSA YURKEVICH: And according to the National Retail
Federation, while online sales are expected to increase
this year, a return to in-store shopping
will make up a larger portion of all holiday sales.
CYNTHIA PENDELTON: I kind of like in-person more.
VANESSA YURKEVICH: You do? Why is that?
CYNTHIA PENDELTON: I don't know it's
just more of the feel of being able to touch it,
being able to see it, being able to try it on for the stores
that you're allowed to, and then being amongst everybody else.
VANESSA YURKEVICH: It's that holiday nostalgia
that Willowbrook Mall says will help
this year's shopping season return
to pre-pandemic expectations.
COY WIRE: 10-second trivia.
What group of islands is the most isolated population center
in the world-- the Galapagos, the Solomon Islands,
Hawaii, or the British Isles?
Answer is Hawaii.
Surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, the US State
is over 2000 miles from California,
nearly 4,000 miles from Japan.
Up next, the world's largest active volcano,
the Mauna Loa in Hawaii.
It's erupting for the first time in nearly 40 years.
The eruption is prompting an ashfall advisory
for Hawaii's Big Island and surrounding waters.
The good news, there's no evacuation notice at this time.
Lava flows are contained in the summit area
and are not threatening to harm downslope communities
according to the Hawaii Volcano Observatory.
The bad news is ashfall from the volcano could damage vehicles
and buildings, contaminate water supplies, disrupt sewage
and electrical systems.
It could even damage or kill vegetation.
Mauna Loa has erupted 33 times since 1843
and covers half of the island of Hawaii.
And it's only 21 miles west of one of the most active
volcanoes in the world, Kilauea, which
is also currently erupting.
When it erupted in 2018, it destroyed more than 700 homes.
All right, from lava to dragon eggs.
There's new drone technology that's
improving an effective technique used
to prevent wildfires, right?
But it might not be what you think,
not a soaring fire extinguisher or a water dropping drone.
They're drones that drop fire in the form of, quote,
"dragon eggs" to perform something
called prescribed burning or starting a fire
in order to avoid one later.
But some experts say that the technique
is dangerous for firefighters.
CNN Business producer Jon Sarlin is here with more.
JOHN SARLIN: These fireball-dropping drones
are improving one of the oldest and most effective
ways of preventing extreme wildfires-- prescribed burning.
CARRICK DETWEILER: Prescribed fire is basically
work by doing a very low-intensity burn that
will burn up the dead leaves and sticks
that would cause major wildfires when they
dry out later in the summer.
We can reduce these huge wildfires by using more
fire when it's safe to do so.
JOHN SARLIN: Many experts say prescribed burning
should be used more often, but it can
be dangerous for firefighters.
CARRICK DETWEILER: They're often hiking out
into the middle of mountains with a drip torch
or they're riding an ATV.
And then you have helicopters with a whole crew on board,
flying really low and slow over the fire.
About a quarter of all wildland firefighting fatalities
are related to aviation.
And for me, this really was a motivation to get these systems
into the hands of firefighters.
JOHN SARLIN: Robotics researcher, Carrick Detweiler,
started his company, Drone Amplified,
to make prescribed fires safer, easier, and less expensive.
CARRICK DETWEILER: Our system doesn't cover the amount
of area that a helicopter can.
But you can deploy tens or hundreds
of systems for the same cost as a helicopter.
JOHN SARLIN: On a 50-pound drone,
Carrick secures a device that can
carry 400 fireballs that ignite when they land on the ground.
CARRICK DETWEILER: We call these dragon eggs.
They have potassium permanganate.
When you mix it with glycol, it starts to chemical
reaction and a fire.
JOHN SARLIN: The drones allow firefighters
to work at a distance from the flames
and areas difficult to reach due to terrain or visibility.
CARRICK DETWEILER: And this is really doubling the amount
of time that firefighters can fight the fire when
it's dark, when it's smoky, when other airplanes can't
be out there.
You can drop the ball's in specific locations.
And this lets you do much more precise burns.
JOHN SARLIN: Precision is important
because even though prescribed, burn escapes
are extremely rare.
The outcome can be devastating.
Two recent controlled burns in New Mexico
led to the state's largest wildfire on record.
CARRICK DETWEILER: Our system can
help prevent escape fires through the use
of thermal cameras.
You can see through smoke and look for any fires
outside of the fire boundary.
Our app also allows the firefighter
to put in geofences to precisely control
where the fire is starting.
And this lets the firefighters actually control
the intensity of the fire.
JOHN SARLIN: Carrick says hundreds of their drone systems
are now working for clients, like the US Forest Service
and other federal agencies.
But in the future, they envision similar systems in the back
of every firefighter's truck.
CARRICK DETWEILER: When firefighters are widely
deploying these, we'll really be able to get up
to doing more prescribed fire that's needed
to mitigate these wildfires.
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COY WIRE: Next up, we're taking a journey
to the far side of the moon.
And it all starts with a selfie.
NASA's Orion spacecraft snapped a selfie
as it approached the moon.
The spacecraft was eight days into its 25 and 1/2
day mission at the time.
The journey will go more than 40,000 miles
beyond the far side of the moon.
And if Orion completes its journey,
it will be the farthest a spacecraft intended to carry
humans has ever traveled.
This selfie was snapped with a camera on one
of the capsule's solar panels.
Pretty cool if I do say so myself.
And now, onto my favorite part of the day, special shout
out to Calhoun Middle School in Denton, Texas.
We see you.
Today, November 29, is Giving Tuesday.
Every year on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving,
people take time to give back, whether that's donating money,
or lending a helping hand, or maybe
you could just go out of your way
to make someone smile today.
Let's make this a great one everyone.
I'm Coy, and this is "CNN 10."
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