What's up, sunshine? I'm Koi Wire. Happy
slant. I simply tell you the what,
letting you decide what to think. Your
news headlines for Thursday, May 15th.
Coming in hot. Happy Friday Eve. First
up today, this
celebrations ringing out in the streets
of Syria after the United States
announced it would be ending sanctions
against the war torn nation. Sanctions
are a form of punishment from one more
powerful government to another. They can
target individual people, institutions,
or entire countries. They are designed
to force people in power to comply with
laws and discourage future violations.
and they can wreak havoc on a developing
nation's economy. It's important for us
uh to see relief on sanctions on Syria,
to help uh the reconstruction of Syria,
to help uh the Syrian people recover uh
from from more than a decade of of
conflict, a decade of under investment,
and we continue to support uh the
reconstruction, whether it's physical or
psychological, of of Syria. The US
enforced these punishments against the
regime of Syria's former dictator Bashar
al-Assad, who led his country into a
14-year long civil war, ignoring many
humanitarian crises before being
overthrown last December. The
announcement came during President
Donald Trump's trip to the Middle East,
where he announced he would be lifting
sanctions on Syria during an investment
forum in Saudi Arabia. He then met with
the Syrian's interim president Ahmed
al-Sharah, which marks the highest level
of US engagement with Syria's new
government. Now to a CNN investigation
amid Russia's war with Ukraine. How much
influence do social media influencers
have on you? Many of us see social media
influencers in our socials promoting
everything from beauty products to
fashion to travel tips. But how do you
feel about influencers who might be
trying to change the way we think about
war? CNN's Claire Sebastian found Russia
is training some aspiring social media
stars to convince outsiders that a
United Nations recognized part of
Ukraine actually belongs to Russia.
Marupul was one of the first Ukrainian
cities to fall to Russian military
control three years ago. After this
report, press pause. Have a discussion
about how you feel about some video
bloggers enlisted by the Russian
government who are showcasing a very
different life in the disputed region.
This is Blogger School in Russian
occupied Marupul. Complete with bean
bags and a selfie
mirror run by a project called the
Donbass Media Center. It offers free
tuition and new skills.
Pavil Kovski, one of the teachers, only
launched his own social channels two and
a half years ago.
He tells me the school, founded by a
pro- Kremlin news outlet, is not
political. And yet, the same can't be
said for his own posts to his now 36,000
Tik Tok followers.
Just look at what Russia is getting up
to in Marupople. He says here, "Oh,
wait. They're building, not
demolishing. This is Marupople, our
Russian town.
My key goal is to show what's happening
here, to show the truth. So people stop
forming their opinion on Dombas by
reading Ukrainian comments which say
that this is Ukraine. It
isn't. Why? We have Russian flags here,
Russian passports, and Russian laws.
3 years after Russia laid siege to
Marupople, destroying, according to the
UN, an estimated 90% of residential
buildings, Marupople is a key strategic
priority for Putin. He even visited 2
years ago to highlight the rebuilding
efforts. And Moscow is now increasingly
looking to social media as a subtle
though powerful propaganda tool in these
regions. And it's clear revival videos
get clicks. Some are couched in
lifestyle content, well stocked grocery
stores or stylish new cafes. Others
directly focused on the reconstruction,
the drama theater, flattened by a
Russian attack 3 years ago as hundreds
of civilians took shelter.
And look how beautiful, says this
vlogger who goes by Masha from
Marupople, showing off brand new
apartment buildings at sunset. Marupul's
Ukrainian mayor in exile says it's an
illusion, one which he believes won't
work.
This propaganda, these madeup clips that
they are doing now in Marupole will not
help. Russia has committed a crime in
Marupole and the people of Marupole know
it. Now to the Midwest, where crews in
northeastern Minnesota are battling to
contain three fires burning thousands of
acres after days of unseasonably warm
temperatures and dry conditions raised
red flag warnings in the state. Governor
Tim Walls activated the Minnesota
National Guard this week and urged
people in the evacuation zone to leave
the area and some people say they had to
flee with just their clothes on their
back. might have to deal uh with the Red
Cross and put these guys in a temporary
shelter
until until we get access to go back
into the house, but they don't
understand it. I just hope it gets under
control soon and people can get home and
they got a home and a cabin to go back
to. I mean, they're pretty much at the
unknown. Officials hope that rain and
higher relative humidity in the forecast
will help fire crews slow the spread of
new embers. Meanwhile, a very different
type of concerning weather for parts of
the Northeast. First, rescue crews
jumped into action at a Maryland
elementary school that was quickly
surrounded by flash flood waters.
Thankfully, no one in the school was
injured. Our Derek Vanam meteorologist
extraordinaire is here to tell us how
these flood waters accumulated and
accumulated so rapidly. Hi, Derek. Yeah,
Koi. This is really some astounding
video coming out of western Maryland.
Look how quickly the water rose within
the western port region. This is a small
community at the base of the Alageney
Mountains. even the local fire
department impacted by the flooding
rains. But I want you to take note of
just how much mountainous terrain is
with it within this community. Uh this
plays an important factor in the
potential of rapid rises and rivers and
the flash flood scenario that often
plays out in West Virginia uh parts of
the Appalachian Mountains. Uh it is this
topography, the mountainous stretches of
land that aids in the potential of this
water flowing down into the communities
below. You can see the mountains in the
background and how quickly those roads
turn into rivers. Again, the Appalachian
Mountains, they stretch roughly 2,000
miles over the eastern portions of our
country. Now, the Alageney Mountains
make part of the Appalachian Mountain
Range and uh the west western port,
Maryland. This is in western Maryland is
this community here. Notice the
topography surrounding this small town.
So when it rains 1 2 3 ines per hour on
these mountains and hillsides that water
has to rush somewhere and it goes
unfortunately to the communities and the
valleys below. This is why koi it is so
important to pay close attention to when
there is a flash flood alert uh rather a
flood alert a flash flood warning or
simply a flood warning. Remember that
rapid rise in water is when you'll see
that shading of red pop up on your
weather map. That is when you want to
take shelter and seek higher ground.
Koi pop quiz hot shot. There are five
major garbage patches accumulated in the
world's oceans. Where's the largest?
Indian Ocean, North Pacific, South
Pacific, or Atlantic
Ocean? If you said North Pacific, ding
ding, you are correct. It's known as the
Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Rotating
sea currents have pulled ocean pollution
and debris into the patch that covers an
area roughly twice the size of the state
of Texas. Now we go to some news that
was out of this world but is now back on
it. After more than 50 years stuck in
space, a Soviet era spacecraft is
believed to have crashed back onto the
Earth's surface. The spacecraft known as
Cosmos 482 was launched by the Soviet
Union in March of 1972, and it spent
years aimlessly trapped in Earth's orbit
after it malfunctioned on its mission to
Venus. Astronomers and space traffic
experts have kept an eye on the craft
over the years as the atmospheric pool
brought its orbital path closer and
closer to home. At only three feet in
diameter, Cosmos 482 no longer had the
ability to maneuver itself. And the
European Space Agency says it evaded
radar tracking in Germany. Russian Space
Agency says the probe entered the
atmosphere on Saturday, splashing down
in the Indian Ocean west of Jakarta,
Indonesia. Because it was originally
designed to withstand Venus's brutal
atmosphere, experts say it likely
survived the estimated 17,000 mph
re-entry in one piece, making it less of
a danger to those of us on Earth. Now to
a shocking historical find in Argentina,
where a collection of secret Nazi
documents seized during World War II was
found completely by chance. Judicial
officials at Argentina's Supreme Court
were relocating court archives from its
basement to a new museum when they
stumbled upon boxes of German government
records. Officials believed the boxes
had been sent to Argentina from the
German embassy in Tokyo in 1941. At the
time, the German diplomatic mission
marked the boxes as quote personal items
belonging to its members. But when
officials opened the crates, they found
stacks of Nazi papers, propaganda,
postcards, and photographs along with
thousands of notebooks from Nazi groups.
Officials are now combing through the
materials, and they say they hope to
gain new information about the Holocaust
and the Nazi party's operations around
the
world. Today's story getting a 10 out of
10 goes to a traffic stop that led to
the rescue of a spider monkey. When
police in Salano County, California,
pulled over a vehicle this month, it led
to the search of a suspect's home, and
that led to the discovery of an
endangered species, a young female
spider monkey. The folks at the Oakland
Zoo named her Vetta, and she had a
physical done, a CT scan, lab test, just
to make sure she was in good health. And
once she's had some proper nutrition
care, she will be. Can you believe she's
the second pet spider monkey in a 6-mon
span that's been taken to the zoo after
a traffic stop? It's not legal to own
primates in California, but staffers at
the Oakland Zoo, they say that finding
these monkeys is becoming a trend.
Spider monkeys, we're seeing more and
more of them coming up from South
America and being brought into private
homes. And it's just not not appropriate
for these animals. They're wild animals
and they they need proper care and uh
they should be in the wild. Good thing
Vetta is safe and sound getting some
great care. Maybe now she'll find a
loving new troop, which is a name for a
group of monkeys. Did you know? All
right, to all my super troopers out
there. We have a shout out going to Mr.
Bronin and all of the Wildcats at Godley
High School in Godley, Texas. We are so
glad you enjoyed yesterday's episode on
xeno transplantation. Keep up all the
good work in your medical technology
training classes and thank you for
making us part of your day. Rise up
everyone. Let's make it a great one.
Smell the flowers. Cool the soup. It is
Friday eve and I'll see you right back
here tomorrow to finish this week strong
on CNN 10.