THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Welcome to a new school year and its very first broadcast of CNN Student News! We're very excited to be with you on this Monday, August 16th. My name is Carl Azuz. It is my privilege to launch you into today's headlines!
AZUZ: New year, new graphics, all kinds of new stuff to tell you about today. In fact, before we went on break for the Summer, we put up a blog post asking what headline you would like to see when you came back to school. A lot of you told us you wanted to see that the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico had been sealed. Well....
U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Today, the well is capped. Oil is no longer flowing into the Gulf. It has not been flowing for a month. But I'm here to tell you that our job is not finished, and we are not going anywhere until it is.
AZUZ: Well, you heard it: Finally, we are able to report that the well is capped. The president made that statement during a trip to the Gulf Coast this past weekend. He wasn't just there to make a speech. He was on vacation. President Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, and their younger daughter Sasha spent the weekend at the beach. The goal was to help drum up some money for the region by showing that it's still a good tourist destination. In fact, President Obama and Sasha went for a swim in the area to help prove that point.
Tourism is a concern because the oil spill hit the Gulf Coast hard. According to one travel organization, the effects of the spill could last for years, and they could end up costing the region up to $22 billion. $22 billion is hard to comprehend. And this gets back to the other part of what the president said, that the work there isn't over. There's still oil out in the Gulf. Balls of tar are still washing up; there's still some oily shoreline. And the clean-up efforts there are going to last for a while.
Again, though, the oil is not leaking out of that well anymore. This animation shows you how officials were able to stop the oil. Back in mid-July, nearly three months after the leak started, a new cap was put on top of the well, and that stopped the flow of oil into the Gulf. Then, a couple weeks ago, BP did what's called a "static kill" procedure. That sealed up the well. And now, officials are running some tests to see how they can seal it permanently.
Kagan Sworn In
AZUZ: Elena Kagan was sworn in earlier this month. She becomes the 112th Supreme Court justice in U.S. history, the 4th female justice to sit on the High Court. Kagan was nominated by President Obama, but she had to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. And during those confirmation hearings, there was some concern about her experience; Kagan has never been a judge before. But she was confirmed by a vote of 63 to 37. And she'll have some time to get settled into her new job. The Supreme Court's in the middle of a three-month recess.
I.D. Me
BARBARA HALL, CNN STUDENT NEWS: See if you can I.D. Me! I'm an Asian country that's located between India and Afghanistan. I got my independence in 1947. My capital city is Islamabad. I'm Pakistan, and I'm home to one of the world's biggest populations.
Pakistan Flooding
AZUZ: Right now, around 10 percent of that population -- up to 20 million people -- are being affected by what you're seeing right here: severe flooding. Rains pounded parts of the country, flooding up to one-fifth of Pakistan. Authorities say more than a thousand people have been killed. Roads, buildings, in some cases entire villages were just washed away. Ban Ki-moon, he's the secretary-general of the United Nations, he traveled to Pakistan yesterday. Ban said that he's seen natural disasters around the world, but added he's never seen anything like this. Part of the reason Ban is in Pakistan is to help raise awareness about the flooding and to help raise money and aid from the international community.
Impact Your World
AZUZ: Well, there are ways you can get involved to help! If these images you've seen make you want to take action, one way to do that is at our Impact Your World page. It gives you a list of different charities and organizations involved in helping Pakistan's flooding victims. We've got it in the Spotlight section of our home page. That's CNNStudentNews.com.
What's the Word?
HALL: What's the word?
the process of combining different countries into one nation
UNIFICATION... That's the word!
AZUZ: One world leader thinks it's time to try unification on the Korean Peninsula. It would actually sort of be a re-unification, as you'll see in just a minute. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak says his nation and North Korea should form a "peace community." A little background on this: Korea used to be one country. After World War II, it split into two nations: North and South. They fought a war against each other in the 1950s; The U.S. and China were both involved in that, too. The tension between the Koreas has kept going ever since. The South Korean leader says that they need to come together as one to help out both countries, and he's proposing a tax that would help help pay the costs for re-unification. There was no immediate response from North Korea.
Web Promo
AZUZ: I mentioned this earlier in the show: our home page. We want it to be your home page! It includes all the old-school favorites, like our Transcript, Daily Discussion questions, maps, my blog. But it's also got new some new stuff, like our "How Do I" box -- it's kind-of like an FAQ. And you're gonna love it. CNNStudentNews.com!
AZUZ: Well, our web site has a new look this year. So does our show. There's another new look we want to talk about now, though, and this one's called the New Look Foundation. The goal of it is to help young people -- some of them your age -- become global leaders. CNN contributor Steve Perry gives us an inside look at New Look and the music superstar you've heard of who founded it.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR: A couple of years ago, James Harris was a troubled teen with little direction in life.
JAMES HARRIS, MEMBER, THE NEW LOOK FOUNDATION: My two teachers, who were like my favorite teachers, they turned me in. And when they turned me in, I felt betrayed.
PERRY: But those teachers also steered James towards the New Look Foundation, a non-profit founded by Grammy award-winning artist Usher. Kids learn skills with hands-on training that help them develop into leaders in business and their communities. So, how was it that you get these kids hooked in?
USHER RAYMOND IV, FOUNDER, THE NEW LOOK FOUNDATION: It is ultimately about introducing them to real-world experiences.
SHAWN WILSON, PRESIDENT, THE NEW LOOK FOUNDATION: We want to train these youth how to take an issue and for them to lead the change, for them to train their peers and for them to get their friends and families involved in solving some of these key issues.
HARRIS: The number one cause of death for teens is car accidents.
PERRY: College sophomore James recently supervised a safe driving skills workshop, and University of Georgia Student Malia Hibbler coordinated a project to send school supplies to orphans in Haiti.
How do you think your experience, with Usher in particular and New Look in general, will help you impact your community when you get out?
MALIA HIBBLER, MEMBER, THE NEW LOOK FOUNDATION: I mean, they are giving us the tools right now. I'm here leading a service project. I didn't think I would be doing that. They are really putting me in leadership roles that are going to help me in the future.
PERRY: You seem to have found a strategy to meet children where they are and get them to do good things for themselves and others.
WILSON: That's right.
PERRY: Where did that come from?
WILSON: I think it is ultimately started with Usher. He said, "We want to work with the youth, and we want to do these things." But more importantly, he said that we need to listen to them. Because we don't do that enough in our society; we don't ask kids what is it that you want and we don't give them a voice.
USHER: A lot of the kids that we have chosen to motivate come from impoverished homes and broken areas, and we can't even begin to deal with all of those issues. But what we can do is to plant a seed that will allow those children to see the light.
PERRY: Steve Perry, Atlanta.
(END VIDEO)
Before We Go
AZUZ: Our last story today is gonna go by fast. We know that some of you rode the bus into school today; I remember having to do that. Sometimes it got me there on time; sometimes I wished it had been faster. Sometimes, if I was still doing my homework, I wished it had been slower. We have a friendly back-to-school tip for you, though. If you miss the bus, don't try to chase after it, at least not if it's this one. There is no way you'll catch up. And you could get burned up in the process. You can thank YouTube for busting out this video. This thing is going more than 300 miles per hour. That's what happens when you stick a jet engine inside a school bus and then put it on an airport runway. The designer was asked why he thinks it's entertaining. His answer: "Come on, it's a jet bus!"
Goodbye
AZUZ: We're just happy the whole plan didn't go up in smoke. But it's time for us to jet. Ack! You knew the puns would be back. If we're gonna have segments at the end of our show that make you smile, we're gonna try for the puns, too. You haters are just gonna have to grin and bear it. Hope you have an awesome day. I'm Carl Azuz. We're gonna look forward to seeing you tomorrow and throughout the week.