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U.S. and China Trade Dispute Heats Up on Both Sides of the Pacific; Transcontinental Railroad Turns 150 Years Old; Study Suggests Wasps Are Capable of Transitive Inference
Aired May 13, 2019 - 04:00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: We kick off a new week of news coverage on CNN 10. A stand off between the U.S. and China is making headlines on both
sides of the Pacific. That`s the first subject we`re explaining today, I`m Carl Azuz. It`s good to have you watching. Tariffs, additional taxes, are
kicking in on many of the goods that the United States imports from China. The two countries have been holding meetings and negotiations for months
but after they failed to reach a trade deal last week, the new U.S. tariffs took effect. And the U.S. government expects China will retaliate with
tariffs of its own as China has said it would.
Why is this happening? There`s a trade deficit between America and China. The U.S. imports more goods from China than it exports to China and that`s
something that U.S. President Donald Trump has called unacceptable. He also says China hasn`t been fair in its trade practices. After the two
countries issued back and forth tariffs on each others goods last year, they held a series of talks to try to reach a solution. But when a deal
wasn`t reached last Friday, the U.S. government raised its tariff rate from 10 percent to 25 percent on about $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. Why
did the talks break down? The U.S. government says China went back on promises it made earlier in the negotiations.
China says it hopes the U.S. will meet it halfway and resolve their differences through cooperation. What happens next? Well in addition to
the question about how and when China will respond is the question about how much the new tariffs will effect the world`s two biggest economies.
President Trump`s top economic advisor says U.S. economic growth would see an impact but that it would be very small and that the improved trade deal
that`s possible would make the consequences worth while. Still, the government does expect that both countries would feel a pinch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN JOURNALIST: Despite friendly handshakes between Team Trump and the Chinese delegates, trade talks have stalled. No deal on the
horizon - -
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Hello everybody.
FOREMAN: - - and no sign of President Trump giving an inch on the 25 percent tariff he`s launched on Chinese goods.
TRUMP: I happen to think the tariffs for our country are very powerful. You know, we`re the piggy bank that everybody steals from including China.
FOREMAN: But American consumers could soon feel a greater impact if the tariffs expand to consumer products is threatened. China would be expected
to pass on those expenses jacking up prices on Smartphones, computers, televisions, fitness trackers and much more. The extra cost for the
average American family of four is expected to be close to $800. What could drive it? Three quarters of the toys bought in the U.S. are made in
China, including these hugely popular dolls. Ninety-three percent of Chinese made footwear including some shoes for Nike could be hit, so could
clothing, Bluetooth headsets and even drones.
Trump`s tariffs on China last year steered away from consumer goods and focused on industrial items such as solar panels, steel and aluminum.
Those costs were passed on by American companies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: American consumers are already paying. They - - they just don`t really know it`s kind of a stealth tax. But it`s going to
become a very obvious tax not to - - not to far from now if this - - if this continues.
FOREMAN: The major markets are already showing unease over the clash. In the next three years of China and the U.S. continue warring over trade,
economists say both countries could see their economies slow down, and close to a million American jobs might be lost. Still the president has
long insisted China is cheating the U.S. by stealing intellectual property, manipulating currency and most recently reneging on a framework for a deal.
And he`s convinced China will blink first tweeting, tariffs will make our country much stronger, not weaker. Just sit back and watch. The treasury
secretary has called the talks constructive but that doesn`t tell us much about how long the impasse might last or how far the impact may reach. Tom
Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. Which of these U.S. landmarks was completed or installed in 1869? The Statue of Liberty, Mt. Rushmore, Transcontinental
Railroad, or Washington Monument. It was in May of 1869, 150 years ago, that the Transcontinental Railroad was completed.
The place where that happened is Promontory Summit. It`s part of present day Utah. The Transcontinental Railroad joined the Central Pacific and
Union Pacific Railroads but this wasn`t just an event that fitted two different rail lines together. It was a turning point in American history.
Before 1869 the railroads the crisscrossed the American east went only about as far as St. Louis, Missouri. If you wanted to go west from there
or really anywhere from the Mississippi River, you had to travel by wagon. That was more dangerous and the trip took three to six months. With the
Transcontinental Railroad in place, travelers could get from New York to California in one week. So even in 1869, people knew the railroad`s
completion was significant.
The hard labor was carried out by veterans of the U.S. Civil War, former slaves who`d been freed during that war. Irish immigrants who`d fled the
potato famine and thousands of workers from China who`d blasted, axed, and hammered the tunnels through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The railroads
completion through gasoline on the fire of America`s westward expansion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So from sea to shining sea, train depots, train museums and trains themselves marking the 150th anniversary. I am on the Grand
Canyon Railway, you can see how beautiful it is. It connects Williams, Arizona with Grand Canyon National Park. Many people are enjoying the
scenery and time talking to other folks including Pam (ph) here. This is her birthday month. Describe what this has been like for you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is such a treat. It`s beautiful. The scenery is beautiful. It`s relaxing. I love it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE : And if you go a little further down the road here, thank you so much and happy birthday Pam (ph), you can see Ramblin` Rose
(ph) and what have you been doing today?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is what I`ve been doing all day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have a song for us?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "I`ve been workin` on the railroad. All the live long day. I`ve been working on the railroad just to pass the time away."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much Rambin` Rose (ph) from Tennessee. Found herself on a train here in Arizona and this is all part of the
history and if you think about this event, it was the railroad that opened up the western United States. The country has not been connected before.
For the passengers on the Grand Central Railway, the trip stopped right here, the Grand Canyon, El Tovar Overlook a magnificent vista. Look below.
There`s where the Colorado River carved out its path century, after century, after century. For the riders on the train, it was all a
commemoration of that 150th Anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad and they got a little memento here. Look at
this. It`s their own version of the golden spike. Reporting from the Grand Canyon, I`m Paul Vercammen. Now back to you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: A new study is shedding new light on wasps and generating some scientific buzz. Researchers say a certain type of wasp may use transitive
inference. This allows people and animals to learn that if A is greater than B and B is greater than C, than A is greater than C. Simple for us
but what about insects. Scientists took paper wasps which are found on almost every continent and put them in a rectangular chamber with two
colors in it. Some of the colors were more likely to be charged with a mild electric shock and researchers say the wasps learned which colors were
For example, if blue rarely shocked them. Green sometimes shocked them and purple often shocked them. The wasps could demonstrate most of the time
that choosing blue and green were safer than choosing purple even when only two of these colors were presented at once. What`s interesting here is
that honeybees which have the same sized brains as paper wasps, failed this test so one takeaway was that the wasp`s behavior maybe more socially
complex than that of the bees. This was the first study that showed an invertebrate may use transitive inference.
Hard to say if robots will one day win a battle of the bands. In this trio at China`s Tsing Hua University, the drummer has four arms so that`s an
advantage but while the flutists doesn`t need to breathe, it`s also unable to feel the music. Becoming a tuned to the nuances of the notes like
humans can. The performance was arranged by teachers, graduates and students and timed to coincide with the university`s 108th anniversary. So
while some human musicians might see this as a "trebeling" sign, and seem a little "downbeat" at the thought of robots becoming "majorly instrumental".
Striking a "chord" with concert audiences, people "oct" to have nothing to fear. There`s "pia" no way very "harmany" machines have the same
"ensembilities" as humans. They`re more virtual than "virtuoso". Creativity isn`t their "forte". Critics would say they`re too robotic and
may even sound "sympony". I`m Carl Azuz for CNN.