Astronauts Speak For First Time Since Extended Stay

 

Hello and welcome to CNN 10, the best 10 minutes in news because of you.

 

I'm Coy Wire. It's Thursday, April 3rd, Happy Friday Eve.

 

It has been a big week in US politics, which includes Senator Cory Booker's record-breaking Senate floor speech in protest of President Donald Trump's agenda.

 

He spoke for more than 25 hours, and though it hadn't happened yet at the time of this recording, president's high stakes tariff announcement, uh, with Wall Street, Main Street, and the world bracing for impact.

 

We will get to all of that tomorrow.

 

Today we start with news about the Chinese military staging a second day of exercises around Taiwan on Wednesday and how that might impact the United States.

 

Taiwan is an island of 23 million people and has governed itself since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

 

While Taiwan operates as a fully functioning democracy with its own government, military, and economy, China considers it a breakaway province that must eventually be reunited with the mainland by force if necessary.

 

breakaway [ˋbrekə͵we] n. （尤指意见分歧导致的）脱离

 

The US does not formally recognize Taiwan as an independent nation but is nonetheless a strong international supporter, supplying military aid and maintaining unofficial diplomatic ties under the Taiwan Relations Act.

 

And now with tensions rising in the Taiwan Strait, a body of water separating Taiwan from mainland China, it's uncertain what may come next and what role the US and other Taiwan supporters might play.

 

Chinese leadership in the capital of Beijing considers the strait part of its territorial waters, while the US and its allies view it as international waters.

 

The strait has long been a flash point for tensions between Taiwan, China, and the US, with Beijing frequently conducting military drills in the area to assert its claims over Taiwan.

 

China launched its first largescale military maneuvers around the island this year.

 

Beijing calls this exercise a serious warning to what it sees as separatist forces pushing for Taiwan's independence.

 

But while past drills were often timed around major political events such as last year's inauguration of Taiwanese President Lie Ching-Te, this latest show of force comes without an obvious trigger, raising questions about China's intentions and its broader geopolitical strategy.

 

As military tensions escalate, the world watches closely, aware that any miscalculation in these waters could have far-reaching and very serious consequences.

 

Our Ivan Watson has more.

 

This is the first time this year that the Chinese military has conducted these types of maneuvers around the self-governing island of Taiwan.

 

The announcement came from China's Eastern Theater Command saying that this was uh a serious warning and powerful containment of what it claims is Taiwan independence separatist forces that all four branches of the Chinese military are involved in these maneuvers.

 

Now Beijing of course views Taiwan as effectively a renegade province and is very angry about any moves towards autonomy coming from Taiwan.

 

renegade [ˋrɛnɪ͵ged] adj. 叛教的; 变节的; 反叛的

 

But typically in the past when it has carried out these types of uh naval and aerial maneuvers around Taiwan it has been pegged to some type of event such as the inauguration last year of the Taiwanese president L Ching-Te.

 

peg [pɛg] v. 限定

 

This time it doesn't seem to be an obvious trigger.

 

Of course the Taiwanese government has condemned this.

 

Uh a statement coming out from the head of the National Security Council in Taiwan called this reckless and irresponsible saying it came without justification and that it violates international law.

 

justification [͵dʒʌstəfəˋkeʃən] n. 正当的理由；借口

 

And one argument has been that it follows a recent visit by the US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to Asia where he visited the Philippines and Japan two close allies and he talked about what he claimed was communist China's threat to the region.

 

Pop quiz hot shot In what year do humans first land on the moon? 2000 1969 1989 or 1920.

 

On July 20th 1969 American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to walk on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission.

 

To a story we've given to you many times before it was supposed to be a quick trip 10 days in space to test Boeing's Starliner.

 

Instead astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore got an extended stay 286 days to be exact.

 

With helium leaks and those thruster issues keeping them in orbit for much longer than planned their mission turned into a real life space odyssey.

 

Now back on solid ground though they are sharing what it was like to celebrate the holidays in microgravity and yes be greeted by dolphins after splashdown.

 

Our Ed Lavandera has the story.

 

That is none other than SuniWilliams.

 

none other than 不是別人而正是

 

For the first time since Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore returned to Earth with fellow astronaut Nick Hague the crew faced questions about the saga that engulfed their space mission. We had a plan right the plan went way off of what we had planned.

 

saga [ˋsɑgə] n. 传说；英雄事迹；冒险故事

 

We pivoted to all that training we did that we didn't think we needed to do.

 

There's a huge group of people who are looking at the whole program and understanding how and what was the best time and way to get us back home.

 

We knew that and we were ready to wait until that decision was made and that was fine.

 

Godspeed, Butch and Sunny.

 

Godspeed [ˋgɑd͵spid] n. 祝成功；幸運；祝一路平安

 

Williams and Wilmore launched into space last summer on a test mission of the Boeing Star Liner but the spacecraft suffered helium leaks and thruster outages.

 

NASA determined the Star Liner wasn't safe to bring the astronauts home turning a mission that was supposed to last about 10 days into 286 days in space.

 

And splashdown crew 9 back on Earth. When you re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and came back to gravity. Can you talk specifically about any kind of weird either sensations or experiences that you've had dealing with that over the last couple of weeks?

 

I can tell you that returning from space to Earth through the atmosphere inside of a 30,000  degree fireball of plasma is weird.

 

And the whole capsule starts shaking and twisting and then the parachutes open up and you're like I've said it many times there's not a better feeling returning from space that the parachutes open and work.

 

Did you know that you guys had been greeted by dolphins when you splash down? oh dolphin cameback again. I had requested dolphins as kind of a joke. Somehow somebody pulled it off.

 

Williams and Wilmore spent more than 9 months on the International Space Station which forced them and their families to adjust to a new timeline.

 

They missed the holidays at home but they marked the occasions with their space family Merry Christmas.

 

Sunny Williams and Butch Wilmore are working to remove that.

 

The astronauts also carried out crucial mission work on the space station including various scientific experiments and mesmerizing spacewalks.

 

Despite the troubles with the Boeing Starliner both Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams say they would fly the spacecraft again in a heartbeat and say they're committed to helping the team of scientists and engineers fix the Star Liner.

 

in a heartbeat 非常快的；无需考虑的

 

We're going to look forward and say what are we going to use our lessons learned from this whole process and make sure that we are successful in the future.

 

Today's story getting a 10 out of 10 foul play.

 

There was a rafter of turkeys who were after a poor mailman just trying to do his job.

 

rafter [ˋræftɚ] n. a group or flock, especially of wild turkeys.

 

A Massachusetts postal worker got ganged up on by these gobblers and they even turned their beaks to the reporter just trying to do his job. Check it out.

 

gang up【口】結夥聯合起來（對付某人）.(+ on someone)

gobbler [ˋgɑblɚ] n. 雄火鸡

 

This was not the turkey trot that one male delivery man pictured when he signed up for the job a year ago. Ring video catching the entire confrontation.

 

trot [trɑt] n.（马等的）小跑，快步

picture [ˋpɪktʃɚ] v. 想像[+wh-]；畫，拍攝；（生動地）描繪，描述

 

I've come close with dogs. I do a lot of stuff on Nantucket so I see deer all the time Uh but this was my first time with turkeys.

A trio of turkeys accosted Wayne White on his postal route Friday afternoon in Hyannis.

 

accost [əˋkɔst] v. 搭讪；（乞丐）上前乞讨

 

From the moment he steps out of his delivery truck White could be heard yelling at the birds to get away. No way.

 

But neither snow nor rain or apparently turkeys would stop this mailman from making his delivery.

 

He made his way to this house using the package he was carrying for defense. Go away.

 

Once I got out, they came after me. You saw, you know me defend with the boxes and whatnot.

 

whatnot [ˋhwɑt͵nɑt] n.（书籍、摆设、古玩等的）陈设架；叫不出名称的东西

 

And then when I got to the step. It's like okay here we are. We got to get back. Make a run for it.

 

And this fearless flock still isn't backing down.

 

They chased me in the very same neighborhood not happy with my reporting.

 

All right take it easy.

 

Wayne says the turkeys wouldn't give up following him as he made several stops.

 

Every time I moved the truck turkeys followed but he made it back to his truck and now has quite the story to tell.

 

All day long, it's been gobble gobble texts and turkey texts and I can't imagine what Thanksgiving is going to be like this year.

 

gobble [ˋgɑb!] n. 火鸡的叫声

 

Those turkeys uh they keep that up. They might be attending that man's Thanksgiving if you know what I'm saying.

 

All right superstars. It is time for our shout out of the day and this one goes to all my Apaches at Gonzalez Junior High School in Gonzalez,Texas.

 

Keep growing greatness and thank you for making us part of your day.

 

We hope that you and everyone watching around the world have a wonderful one.

 

I'm Coy Wire and we are

 

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