CNN10 2024-10-07




CNN 10

Homegrown Airline Takes Off; "Hotel in nature": Inside the World's Best New Skyscraper. Aired 4-4:10a ET

Aired October 07, 2024 - 04:00 ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Happy Monday. Hope you had an awesome weekend. Let's rise up, lock in, and take the next 10 minutes to fuel our minds. I'm Coy Wire. CNN 10 starts now.

We're getting right into it today with the headlines, starting first with the port strike, which came to an end after three days and with likely only limited damage to the economy. Union workers under contract with the United States Maritime Alliance were back on the job on Friday after the two sides reached an agreement on wage increases, a key dispute in the strike. They agreed to raises of $4 an hour for the union members and $4 per hour raises every year after that over the six-year tentative deal.

While it's a good thing a prolonged strike was averted, it's going to take some time for the flow of goods to get back to normal. Logistics experts say it could take three to five days to recover from just that one day of a strike.

And news for the economy, where the United States added 254,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.1%. That's 100,000 jobs over what was expected and a big boost for a labor market that economists worried was showing signs of weakness.

And not even two weeks after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Florida, communities there are being urged to prepare again for another storm. This one, a potential Category 3 hurricane coming in from the Gulf of Mexico, Tropical Storm Milton is on a path to quickly intensify projected to make landfall on the state's West Coast midweek. The entire Southeast region was hit hard by Helene and news of another storm is worrisome.

Florida's Big Bend is still clearing debris and farther north in the Carolinas. The true toll of Helene's aftermath is still being accounted for as debris is cleared and search and rescues wrap up.

CNN's Ryan Young gives us a look at how people there are managing after the storm.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The pictures from above, just incredible. The before, the after.

BRITTANY NEAL, NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENT: I haven't seen my kids. I'm tired, hungry, still have no power.

YOUNG: Ripped up roads, destroyed homes and power lines down everywhere, making the recovery process and the search for the missing very difficult.

SHERRYE TRICE, NORTH CAROLINA RESIDENT: It's the not knowing what's happening around you. It's not knowing if help is coming.

YOUNG: Helene is the second-deadliest hurricane to strike the U.S. mainland in the past 50 years, a week after at least 200 people are still missing and just one North Carolina County and more than 200 people are dead across six states.

MICHELLE COLEMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ASHEVILLE DREAM CENTER: We've never seen this before and I know that we don't really truly know the numbers of the loss of life here.

YOUNG: Stories of survival and neighbors jumping in to help neighbors are inspiring.

Floodwaters from Hurricane Helene were taking Leslie Worth downstream. Eddie Hunnell (ph), who was preparing for his son's wedding, heard Leslie screams in the water and jumped into a canoe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So I jumped in and started swimming to her.

YOUNG: Others also springing into action. This championship kayaker brought supplies to residents trapped by floodwaters.

Across six states, the work to clear an open roads to help power crews get the lights back on while small businesses and families hope for a timeline to get life back to normal, it's just realistically not there for so many right now.

(On camera): Yeah, there are many families that are in critical need of that power because without the power, they have no air; without the air, a lot of the food is going to spoil. And on top of that, we talked to families who are barely making it by.

And they are wondering where they can get their next meal. We saw a lot of free food giveaways in these affected areas. And they're hoping that soon, the power comes back on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: Now to a potential game changer in global commercial aviation, where the industry has long been dominated by two giants, Boeing in the United States and Airbus in Europe, who make nearly all of the world's airplanes. But China is looking to change that with its C919 airliner, a potential rival to the Western companies. Beijing debuted its C919 airliner outside of Chinese territory by staging a flyby at the Singapore Air Show in 2023, flying only within China since then.

The aircraft is a prominent symbol of Beijing's made in China strategy, aiming to reduce reliance on foreign manufacturers. CNN's Steven Jiang took his first trip on the aircraft. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning from Beijing. As someone who has flown more than a million miles with all sorts of airlines,

I haven't felt this excited about stepping on an airplane for a long time.

Well, today my excitement has nothing to do with the destination. I'm actually flying to Shanghai, basically China's busiest air shuttle route.

But today I got up bright and early for the 7:30 am departure for this guy.

This is the C919, China's first homegrown mainline passenger jet. It's China's answer to a very exclusive club, one dominated by Europe's Airbus and Boeing from the U.S. The Boeing 737 and the Airbus A320 are two of the world's best-selling aircraft types.

In contrast, the C919 first flew just last May and has yet to be certified by American and European regulators. But there is potential space in the market, especially as Boeing is dealing with ongoing strikes and has been facing huge losses of billions of dollars in the last couple of years.

Here's the moment the truth. I'm about to board the C919.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today you are flying with China C919 aircraft.

JIANG: OK. Final takeaway. Very few people choose their flights based on aircraft types, saving us aviation geeks. I think most people on the C919 flight just took had no idea what kind of plane it'll be on until after they bought it.

Some of them did take photos after arriving Shanghai because obviously there was national pride involved, but also it's still very rare to be able to ride the C919 because there are only a handful of these planes flying strictly within mainland China.

The plane I was on is Air China's first and only C919, they've got just last month in August, 2024. So it still have that very special feeling now to measure the new plane smell.

Now, the fact passengers like myself, didn't notice much difference between flying the C919 and the Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 is probably a good thing.

That means the plane has met our expectations when it comes to safety and comfort.

Now, of course, the state-owned COMAC, which manufactures C919 and the Chinese government have much bigger ambitions. But as many people have pointed out, their priority right now should be proving the C919's reliability to carriers and passengers alike. And the focus should be churning out more workforces, not just show horses.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: Pop quiz, hot shot. Singapore, the island country and city-state in Southeastern Asia, has banned what item, making them illegal to use?

Cigarettes, chewing gum, mints or chapstick?

If you said chewing gum, you are correct. Singapore prides itself on being a clean city with a number of strict rules that visitors and locals must follow to keep it that way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is Singapore's pan-pacific orchard. The 347-room hotel was just named the world's best new tall building by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. The industry group calls the skyscraper a, quote, "Hotel in Nature."

Four open-air terraces cut the building into distinct stacks vertically with different themes, forests, beaches, garden and clouds. In some areas,

Singapore has strict building codes that require developers to include large amounts of greenery. The pan-pacific orchard has roughly three times the legal minimum.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Today's story, getting a 10 out of 10, the friendliest neighbor on the block, this doggy dispenser will unleash free treats for any four-legged friends walking by this East Nashville home. Doug Owen's got the positively genius idea while watching dogs walk by his house as he worked from home. He bought a gumball machine, filled it with treats, and fixed it to a tree in his front yard, making it a howling good time for all.

All right, superstars, today's shout-out goes to Bessie Allen Middle School in North Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin. This is your moment. Thank you for making us part of your day.

Shine bright, everyone. You never know when or how, but you might be the light someone needs today, so rise up.

I'm Coy Wire. We are CNN 10. I'll see you right back here tomorrow.

END