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COY WIRE: Hello, everyone.
Hope you're off to a great day so far.
I'm Coy Wire.
This is "CNN 10."
And it's #YourWordWednesday.
So follow me @CoyWire on Insta, Snapchat, and TikTok
and put your challenge words in the comment
section of my most recent post.
And we'll try to work one fun one into tomorrow's show.
Now, we start today with the back-to-back winter storms
in California's mountain communities
that have trapped people in their homes
with intense snow for nearly two weeks now.
The Sierra Nevada region already saw 38 inches
over a 24-hour period.
And now, there's another round of snow headed that way.
And many people in the San Bernardino Mountains
are getting desperate, unable to leave
their homes as their food and medicine supplies
are starting to run out.
Driveways are blocked.
Cars are buried under piles of snow as high
as a second-story window.
But even if they could leave, many businesses,
including grocery stores, have been forced to close.
Let's hear now from CNN National Correspondent Camilla Bernal,
who's in California as the state braces
for even more snow and people grow even more concerned.
CAMILA BERNAL: Residents here are still frustrated
and so upset, just because of how long
this entire process is taking.
There are people here that have been at their homes for more
than 10 days without being able to leave,
without access to food, a grocery store, a pharmacy.
Here, behind me is the only grocery store in town.
And the roof collapsed, because there was so much snow
accumulated at the top of the grocery store
that it no longer is open.
And so people have to rely on donations.
This community is coming together.
As you can see here behind me, they brought firewood.
And the problem is that I talked to other people who have told
me, look, I can't even turn on my fireplace,
because there is so much snow.
So the ones that can, they are here
trying to get anything they can to make their lives
a little bit easier.
I've talked to people who are stuck higher up
in the mountains, who tell me, look,
I cannot even make it to the places where they're giving
out these donations.
And so that frustration just accumulates
day after day after day.
The authorities saying they are making progress.
They say that, so far, they've been
able to essentially clear about 85% of the roads in this area.
The problem is there's a lot of side streets
that are still blocked off because of the snow.
And many of the residents telling me that that is why
they can't leave their homes.
They're wanting for this entire process
to move a little bit faster.
But as of now, authorities are saying that they have to wait.
COY WIRE: Up next, TikTok could soon be banned in the United
States, along with other social media apps deemed as security
threats by lawmakers.
Both Republicans and Democrats have United
and voiced their concerns about foreign-owned apps like TikTok.
And on Tuesday, the Senate Intelligence committee
unveiled a bipartisan Senate Bill that would give President
Biden the ability to ban them.
Politicians and cybersecurity experts
have said that foreign technology coming into America,
if not regulated, could be used to spy on Americans
or take data from them, or it could be used as a tool
to promote certain ideologies.
In other words, it could be used to program our minds.
CNN technology reporter Brian Fung
tells us about the potential impact of this bill.
BRIAN FUNG: This bill could lead to a national ban of TikTok.
And it's important to point out here that this legislation is
still in its very early stages.
But the-- it would give the authority to the Commerce
Department to take steps, including up to
and including a ban of TikTok.
The bill doesn't specifically target TikTok but rather
kind of talks about an overall category of technologies
that might be deemed to be national security
risks, whether that's TikTok, or Huawei,
or other companies that might raise
national security concerns.
The whole intent behind this bill,
according to Senator Warner, is to prevent
a so-called whac-a-mole situation where the government
has to come up with new legal authorities
or new bills designed to target individual companies.
And this would just give them a bigger, more flexible tool.
TikTok has acknowledged that the trust issue with policy makers
is real.
And that it's going to take time to address that.
And it's also said that the ultimate goal is
to have US user data only be accessible by TikTok's US
employees.
Now, TikTok CEO spoke yesterday at a Harvard
Business Review conference.
And here's a little bit more of what he said.
SHOU ZI CHEW: I think the first thing I would say
is that we take these concerns extremely seriously.
The Chinese government has actually never
asked us for US user data.
And we've said this on the record
that even if we will ask for that, we will not provide that.
BRIAN FUNG: Now, we're seeing here that TikTok CEO is saying,
look, it's going to take time to gain trust with policymakers.
We're taking these voluntary steps to improve
our security and safeguards.
But on the other hand, you have lawmakers,
like Senator Warner, who say, you know,
we need action right now.
And so what we're seeing here is this mismatch, this contrast
between TikTok on the one hand, you know,
saying let's take some time here,
and lawmakers who want to really take
some action right this moment.
COY WIRE: 10-second trivia.
What TV cartoon premiered in 1962
and featured a futuristic family traveling in flying cars--
"The Flintstones," "The Jeffersons," "The Jetsons"
or "The Brady Bunch?"
Said to have been set 100 years after its premiere,
"The Jetsons" featured a high-tech family
flying in the year 2062.
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Shows like "The Jetsons" or movies
like "Back to the Future" make viewers ponder what technology
might look like in the future.
But here in the year 2023, we're less
than 40 years away from that imagined future
of "The Jetsons."
And at the rate technology advances
these days, futuristic worlds actually seem
to be just around the corner.
So how far away are we from being able to zip up and over
traffic jam streets, from being able to hover around
a city from rooftop to rooftop?
We'll hear from a tech expert who tells us what's holding us
back and what's such a futuristic city
of travel might look like.
JEREMY WHITE: We've been chasing this dream of flying
cars since "The Jetsons."
Sci-fi has led us to believe that we're going
to be having these vehicles.
But it's really not the case.
eVTOL stands for electric vertical takeoff and landing.
It is a vehicle electrically powered
that can lift off the ground vertically, then go
forward to a certain destination,
and then land vertically as well.
And there are a number of companies at advanced stages
of creating these vehicles.
But we're somewhere away yet.
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There are a number of ways that these eVTOLs could be piloted.
Most of the ways at the moment seem
to be focusing on having an actual pilot,
a human at the helm.
So they have to be certified.
They have to be made legal.
They have to obviously have the regulations in how they would
fly, where they would fly, who's going to be in charge, who's
going to be responsible, whether the vehicles
are going to be safe or not.
And this is what's holding these vehicles back.
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It's an interesting question talking about how eVTOLs will
fit into the cityscape, because cities
are already very crowded.
And so where will you use them?
Most people right now are saying they're going
to operate as a taxi service.
So going from existing heliports and then off to heliports, say,
at the airport.
So utilizing the existing infrastructure
in cities in order to make these things work.
So there, you've got some pinch points, too,
because those infrastructure points
are already being used by helicopters and other aircraft.
And so you've got to actually fit in with those.
You've got to fit in with their flight plans.
And also, then you've got to work out how to charge them.
And no one's got to that point yet.
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COY WIRE: All right.
We are just over a week away from St. Patrick's Day.
So today's 10 out of 10 story is very fitting.
A woman from Wisconsin might be the luckiest person
in the world, setting the new Guinness
World Record for the largest collection
of four-leaf clovers.
Gabriella Gerhart started hunting four-leaf clovers all
the way back in the year 2010.
She now has more than 119,000 of them.
That's 7,000 more than the previous record, FYI.
Now, learning about this story got me thinking, what's
so lucky about this leaf?
According to Celtic tradition, a four-leaf clovers
have magical powers of protection
and are able to ward off evil and bad luck.
But it's not clear to historians where the idea began.
OK, remember to send all those #YourWordWednesday submissions.
Had so many good ones last time.
We want to give a special shout out to Laconia Middle School
in Laconia, New Hampshire.
Rise up, and thanks for subscribing
to our CNN 10 YouTube channel.
Also, today, March 8 is International Women's Day.
So special shout out to all the inspiring, uplifting,
and awesome women in our lives.
Much love and many blessings.
I'm Coy Wire.
And we are "CNN 10."
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