Students: Ms.Liebert's and Ms. Donovan's seventh-grade humanities class in Graham, Washington, and Channel One News starts right now!
Emily: Okay, that is a soaking wet start to this Thursdayfrom Frontier Middle School in Graham, Washington. Nice one, guys — stay dry. Hey there,I am Emily Reppert. Let's get this started.
First up, a stunning diplomatic move: Three American prisoners being held in North Korea are freeand back here in the U.S.This morning,President Trump greeted the newly released prisoners as they landed at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, D.C.
President Donald Trump: It will be a, I think, a very special time because nobody thought this was going to happen.
Emily: As a show of good faith, the White House has been pressuring North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to release the Americans, a businessman and two teachers.Kim Dong Chul has been held since October 2015;Tony Kim and Kim Hak-song since last spring.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in North Korea Tuesday and met with Kim Jong-un, securing the release of the men and finalizing the upcoming meeting with President Trump.
Trump: Both sides want to negotiate a deal. I think it’sgonna be very successful.
Emily: All right, next up, it was question time for the woman trying to lead our nation's intelligence agency.
Gina Haspel, President Trump's nominee to be the next director of the CIA, went before the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday.
Gina Haspel: Experience has taught us that CIA cannot be effective without the people's trust.
Emily: In her opening remarks, Haspel addressed the most controversial part of her 33-year career as a spy: her involvement in the post-9/11 interrogations of terror suspects, which critics have said was like torture.
Haspel: Under my leadership, on my watch,CIA will not restart a detention and interrogation program.
Emily: President Trump chose Haspel after the previous CIA director, Mike Pompeo, was elevated to secretary of state. While Haspel is said to have broad support among the U.S. intelligence community, her confirmation is far from certain.
SenatorMark Warner: If this president asks you to do something that you find morally objectionable, what will you do?
Haspel: My moral compass is strong. I would not allow CIA to undertake activity that I thought was immoral, even if it was technically legal.
Emily: If Haspel is confirmed, she will become the first woman to lead the CIA in its history.
And you just heard Words in the News: CIA, the Central Intelligence Agency, which is the foreign intelligence service for the U.S. government that gathers information from spying and analyzing info from around the world.
Twenty-one days — that is how long it takes to make or break a habit. And yesterday, we told you about a group of students on a mission to dissolve their sugar addiction.Arielle Hixson is at Berwick Middle School to check back in and see if they made it or ate it.
Arielle: After 21 days with no sugar, these students at Berwick Area Middle School have lost their sweet tooth.
RosalinaRobustelli: I just tried eating my favorite piece of candy, like blue raspberry Jolly Rancher, and it really didn't taste very good.
Ethan Lear:I had a sip of soda, and it was so sweet,and then my head started to hurt because it was just overpowering.
Arielle: How did the 21-day sugar challenge go for you?
Ben Gizenski: Well,I passed it, and once I finished it,I tried the drinks I gave up, and they were too sweet.
Arielle: Too sweet?
Ben: Yeah.
Arielle: Like, you couldn't even finish it?
Ben: No!
Arielle: A couple of them told me that they were so over sweets, and you know what? There are actually benefits to going sugar-free.By cutting down sugar, you can lose weight, have more energy, better skin, better sleepand less risk for health issues like Type 2 diabetes. So a life without sugar is the real sweet life.
Student video: Look at that! There's 23 grams of sugar.
Tierra McMillan: Forty-one grams?
Ben: Let’s see what we have.This lemonade has 40 grams of sugar; that's too much sugar. I'll just have water. That hits the spot.
Arielle: While you were teaching, did you notice when they were going through withdrawal symptoms?
Cheryl Pasukinis:Well,I do notice when my students start to get very tired, and yes,I did see that a little bit more. But then I had them do jumping jacks and jog in place.
Arielle: It was like a fitness program too.
Pasukinis: It was. That’s right.
Arielle: There were a few slipups.
Student video: Now,barbecue chips —no sugar, so we're all good.Wait, nope, there's sugar, right next to seasoning, right there.
Arielle: This is an honest space, a friendly space. Did anyone have a little bit of sugar during the challenge?
Rebecca Alexander:I had a little bit of cake — like, not that big of a piece, though, so it wasn't that bad.
Arielle: But in the end, it was a lifestyle that changed.
Ethan: I would like to continue it, and it has been easier because you don't have as many cravings, because you haven't had it in a while.
Arielle: You are always looking to see what is in the food.Now, do you guys still look at the labels?
Rosalina: My parents got chocolate chip muffins the other day, and I looked at the labels to see how much sugar there was, and I told my parents not to eat it.
Arielle: Sugar was scratched out of lunch…
Tierra: I have a turkey sandwich. It doesn't have any mayonnaise on it or anything.It's just lettuce, tomatoes.
Arielle: …and home.
Ethan: As you can see, during and after the 21-day sugar challenge, we have tried not to have soda in our house. We have vegetables, like brussels sprouts, carrots and broccoli.
Arielle: The sweet life is gone for these guys, but I wouldn't say that is a bad thing.
Ben: If Mrs. Pasukinis never would have taught us this, we would have kept eating the sugar, and everybody would still think fat was the problem and not sugar.
Arielle: Are you proud of them?
Pasukinis: Oh my gosh, yes.Yes, I'm very proud of my students. They work hard, and they share their experiences, not just within the classroom, but they share them with their families and their friends — and the fact that I’d say about 400 students in the school participated in it. So it was a great challenge — it really was.
Arielle: Arielle Hixson, Channel One News.
Emily: Wow! Congrats to everyone who participated in the challenge.Talk about some serious discipline!
All right, when we get back, it is a bird, it is a plane! Just kidding, it is a flying taxi!?
Emily: All right, now, if you have ever been stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, you already know it is no fun.
Tom: Totally agree with that one, especially during rush hour. But now one ride-sharing company is all about avoiding the streetand instead taking it to the skies. Take a look.
Dara Khosrowshahi: We think cities are going to go vertical in terms of transportation, and we want to make that a reality.
Tom: Uber CEODara Khosrowshahi says this model of an air taxi shows the company's vision for the future of transportation.It is a world where passengers request an Uber Air on their phone, then head to these rooftop sky ports, where the aircraft take off.
Khosrowshahi: We want to create the network around those vehicles so that regular people can take these taxis in the air for longer distances when they want to avoid traffic at affordable prices.
Tom: Jeff Holden is Uber's chief product officer.
Jeff Holden: So the thing lifts up, kind of like a helicopter, but then, when it gets to the right altitude, this rotor here kicks on. It actually creates forward thrust, and it uses the wings for lift.
Tom: Holden says they are still in the design phase. Unlike a helicopter, this aircraft will have clusters of small propellers and run on electricity, making it quieter, more efficient and more affordable. At first they will have pilots, but the goal here is for these taxis to fly on their own, although safety is a big concern.
Khosrowshahi: One of the key tenets of this technology is for us to have four riders in each vehicle, so that essentially, the cost per ride goes down.
Tom: The company has had issues in the past, including a March accident involving a self-driving Uber car that killed a pedestrian. The CEO says the software may have played a role in the crash, but the company is waiting on the results of an investigation.
Khosrowshahi: What I'm doing is a top-to-bottom audit of our procedures, training, software, hardware, what our practices are.
Tom: Khosrowshahi says he is concentrating not just on correcting the company's past issues but on making the necessary changes to ensure the company's future growth, including the launch of Uber Air.
Khosrowshahi: You know, you've got to set aggressive goals in order to push teams and people to make those goals.
Tom: Tom Hanson, Channel One News.
Emily: And for more gadgets of the future, just head to ChannelOne.com.
All right, it is time for us to zoom on out of here, but not before we show a little love for our teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week.
Student: Thank you to all our teachers.
Student: Hi, Ms. Young.
Student: Hey, Ms. Di Semea!
Student: Hey, Ms. Evans.
Student: Hey, Ms. Lewis. We love you!
Student: I would just like to say happy Teacher Appreciation Week to all the teachers at Diamond Regional. They’ve been a big help in my life, so happy Teacher Appreciation Day!
Student: I want to give a shout-out to Ms. McBean and Ms. Gaiter. Thank you for being our teachers.
Students: We thank Ms.…, our math teacher.
Student: Hi to my favorite teacher, my history teacher, Mr. Jewett.
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