This Thursday, May 8, we are happy to have you along for CNN STUDENT NEWS. I`m Carl Azuz.
You might not have heard of synthetic drugs. This can describe a wide range of chemical
substances that mimic the effects of other drugs like marijuana or heroine. The U.S.
government says synthetic drugs can be even more dangerous than then illegal ones they
try to imitate. Synthetic ingredients are sometimes more potent. They are untested.
The names in ingredients are often changed to prevent drug busts, but that doesn`t always
work. Yesterday, the government announced more than 150 people have been arrested over
the past four months for making or selling synthetic drugs. Police seized hundreds of
thousands of drug packages and more than $20 million in cash and other assets.
The government`s particularly concerned about synthetic drugs in part because a 2012 survey
found that one in nine high school seniors said they used synthetic marijuana. That was
that group`s second most frequently used drug behind actual marijuana.
Next up today, Janet Yellen, she`s the leader of the Federal Reserve, the Central Bank of
the U.S. She expects the U.S. economy to grow "somewhat faster than it did last year. But
she has some concerns. For one, the U.S. housing market. It`s weak, homes are at selling as
well as economists expected. One thing the Fed`s doing is keeping interest rates low
to encourage people to borrow money for purchases like houses.
Interest rates are one tool at the Fed`s disposal.
So, we`ve had that phase that, you know, money makes the world go around, but you may have
asked yourself once or twice, OK, well, who makes the money go around? So, the answer
is the Federal Reserve or as my friends and I like to call it, the Fed.
So, the Fed is pretty much unlike any other U.S. institution that I can think of.
It`s run by board of governors based in Washington D.C., it has 12 (INAUDIBLE) banks located
around the main banking centers of the country, some places like New York, San Francisco,
Philadelphia.
Presidents of these banks and the board of governors, they meet eight times a year to
make big policy decisions and to ensure the economy is moving at a stable (INAUDIBLE).
So, Congress oversees the Fed, but the Fed doesn`t really answer to Congress. The Fed
operates completely independently because it doesn`t care about politics. All it cares
about is basically two things: number one, keeping prices stable and number two, trying
its best to ensure that everybody who wants the job gets one. So, if the economy is heating
up, it tries to cool things down by raising the cost of borrowing, my making it harder
to borrow money. And if things are getting too cold, it does the opposite. So, you can
sort of think of the Fed like Goldilocks. It doesn`t really like things too hot, too
cold, it wants everything to be just right.
So, you probably want to ring - OK, well, you know, how does the Fed work its magic?
What its secret weapon? The answer is, interest rates.
So, the way the Fed gets interest rates at just that right level at that sweet spot is
through buying and selling U.S. Treasuries and other bonds. So, when it wants to cool
the market down it sells you as treasuries. Stashes away the cash, and not reduced the
money supply. So, that makes it harder to borrow money, and that basically slows down
economic growth.
When really wants to heat the market up, it essentially starts buying up U.S. treasuries
and other bonds that floods its markets with cash and fuels economic growth. So, it`s not
necessarily a perfect system, but it works, at least for now, and as they say on Wall
Street, don`t fight the Fed.
See, if you can I.D. me. I`m a nation that`s the world`s largest producer of platinum.
I have three capitals including Pretoria. You`ll find me in the southern north part
of Africa. I`m South Africa, and I`ve been governed by President Jacob Zuma since 2009.
Even though 79 percent of South Africa`s population is black, the country didn`t have its first
black president until 1994. The reason - Apartheid. South African government policy of segregation.
It discriminated against people who weren`t white. It was officially over by 1994 when
Nelson Mandela was elected, and his political party was expected to do well in Wednesday`s
election. Though scandals surround the country`s current leader.
This is the first election since the death of Nelson Mandela. And it`s his party, the
Liberation Party, the ANC that is guaranteed to win at the polls and give Jacob Zuma, the
president, a second term. But many of these voters have become disenchanted with South
Africa 20 years after that first democratic election. Scandals involving the president,
for example, have angered many. A recent report has said that the president misused public
funds to privately upgrade his own home. So, what does that mean when these people go into
these voting halls and mark their ballot paper? Well, the question is how much support will
the ANC lose and will opposition party, such as the EFF, and the Democratic Alliance gain
more support. But in the end, the ANC will get more than over 60 percent of the votes,
say polls, because there`s still deep emotional attachment to the party that liberated South
Africans. Robyn Curnow, CNN, Alexandra, South Africa.
Next report takes us from Brunei to Beverly Hills. First, a bit about Brunei. This is
the South East Asian country that`s a little smaller than Delaware. And it has less than
half of Delaware`s population, about 422,000 people live in Brunei. Almost 80 percent of
those people are Muslim. And their government just instituted a strict form of Islamic law
called Sharia law. Under Sharia law certain acts like leaving Islam or committing adultery
are illegal, in some cases they are punishable by death. Not at Beverly Hills. A landmark
there, the Beverly Hills Hotel is part of the hotel chain. Brunei`s leader invests in
that chain. And because they disagree with Brunei`s Sharia law, a number of celebrities
have stopped staying at the hotels. That`s having some side effects.
Beverly Hills Hotel employees packing a City Council meeting pleading members to not pass
a resolution condemning the laws of a country half a world away.
It strangles our livelihood. It causes us to be unable to support our children, our
families. My sick grandmother in Vietnam.
But the pleads failed to stop it from passing.
With tremendous honor -yes.
The Beverly Hills City Council resolution targets this man, the sultan of Brunei, a
small South East Asian country. Brunei recently enacted new Islamic Sharia law that punishes
adultery, abortions and same sex relationships with flogging and stoning.
The sultan is reportedly worth more than $20 billion and has the best seat in the hotel
chain that owns the story Beverly Hills Hotel.
Maybe people just become aware.
Celebrities now vowing to boycott the iconic hotel and the entire chain. Richard Branson
tweeting, "No Virgin employee nor our family will stay at the Dorchester Hotels until the
sultan abides by basic human rights.
It`s all economic, you know. How big an economic impact will it have? Let`s find out and see.
The hotel says the boycott has already cost it more than a million dollars, but will try
to avoid layoffs.
It`s getting to hurt our employees. And they have - nothing to do with them, no whatsoever.
Trojans, tornadoes and eagles - welcome to the CNN STUDENT NEWS "Roll Call." We are starting
today in Topeka, Kansas, with the Trojans. They are making our roll at Topeka High School.
Spinning up to Anoka, Minnesota. Hello to the tornadoes. Thank you for watching it,
Anoka High School. And in Tolland, Connecticut, the eagles are soaring over Tolland High School.
It`s great to know you all are watching.
It`s teacher appreciation week and we are featuring your comments. From our student
viewers already on Facebook, Min appreciates Ms. Carey at Buscan International Foreign
School. She makes science interesting and inspires me to become a scientist. Mackenzie`s
favorite teacher is Mrs. Makos. "She`s helped me with my math skills and made me a better
student." Sarah writes, `Mr. Marquez is one of the best social studies teacher someone
could have. You`ll never get lost in his class." Laverrio says, Coach Wingo is world history
teacher is very chill and laid back. Any teen would be happy to have him as a teacher. And
Sean says Mrs. Hall teaches us a lot about how America came to be and how current event
affect us.
If you never wondered what it looks like when a relatively small hovering pile of twisted
plasma shifts back and forth a little bit before blasting off in the space, well, NASA`s
got your answer. You`re looking at a prominence eruption, something that scientists say is
pretty common on the Sun and no threat to us here. This view is from NASA`s solar dynamics
observatory, an $850 million space craft that orbits the earth, staring at and studying
the Sun. There`s plenty of space for puns here. You could say, it really heats up interstellar
interest, that it gives a startling view, that it`s plasmatic, enlightening, illuminating,
radiant, brilliant. It`s certainly something else and it lets us end our show on a sunny
side - hope you make more space again for CNN STUDENT NEWS tomorrow.
For more infomation >> Q2 News 5:30 p.m. Top Stories with Jeanelle Slade, Friday 9-29-17 - Duration: 5:30. 
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