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Will a tiny island in the South China Sea make a big difference
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in the territorial dispute over the region?
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I'm Carl Azuz and that's what we're exploring first up today.
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It's good to see you. We'll start by moving over to Taiwan.
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It's a country that lays claim to Itu Aba Island, also known as Taiping Island,
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which is about a three-hour flight from southern Taiwan.
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It's part of the Spratly Islands, home to around 200 people.
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And if United Nations Court rules that this island can support human life,
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it could give Taiwan control of the territory around it,
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fishing rights, permission to explore for minerals around the island.
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There's a lot tied in to that decision.
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But, China, which also has interests in the region, doesn't accept the court's authority.
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And Taiping Island is just one component of a larger dispute,
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a larger struggle to define who owns what.
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The contested waters of the South China Sea, seen from a Taiwanese military plane.
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And this is what greets you when you land at Taiping, an island controlled by Taiwan.
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Taiping is a tiny island. It basically runs the length of this runway.
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The Taiwanese government first laid claim to this place more than half a century ago,
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but this is the very first time the government says
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that journalists have been invited to see it firsthand.
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And it's at a time when tensions are ratcheting up here in the South China Sea.
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At least six different countries have competing claims for this body of water.
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But China claims almost all of it.
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And to cement China's claim, Beijing has been building a series of manmade islands atop reefs and atolls
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in the hotly disputed Spratly archipelago.
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It's making the neighbors nervous. Enter the U.S. Navy.
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We caught up with the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis shortly after it sailed through the South China Sea,
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performing an unmistakable show of U.S. force.
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Washington calls these visits freedom of navigation operations. They clearly irritate the Chinese.
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This is the Chinese Navy. This is the Chinese Navy. Please, go away quickly.
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Last year, CNN accompanied a U.S. Navy spy plane that flew over China's manmade islands.
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You go!
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Beijing expressed outrage,
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issuing formal protests and calling these operations a very serious provocation.
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So, where do smaller claimants like Taiwan fit in?
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On Taiping, officials showed off the island's chickens and goats as well as supplies of fresh water.
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If Taiwan proves Taiping can sustain human life,
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then the Taiwanese can make the case for a potentially
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lucrative 200 nautical mile economic exclusion zone around the island.
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More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's.
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It's a disease that's associated with memory loss and decrease brain function.
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In a new survey by the Alzheimer's Association, look into the disease's effects
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on people who care for Alzheimer's patients, their families, their loved ones.
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It found they feel a significant financial impact,
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an average of more than $5,000 per year that caregiver spend of their own money.
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It also found that some of them are more likely to go hungry
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or cut back on their own medical treatment to make ends meet
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and affording care for the Alzheimer's patients.
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So, what could be done about this?
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The association suggests the national effort to help families
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better understand the expenses they could face,
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plan for the future and know what services are available
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in their communities to help with Alzheimer's care.
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It only weighs three pounds, has a texture like firmed jelly and tons of wrinkles.
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Yet that pint-sized prune of a brain is the most amazing powerful organ
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in your entire body when it's working right.
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But when it's not, as in Alzheimer's disease, the results can be devastating.
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Take a look here. The brain on left, that's normal.
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The one on the right has advanced Alzheimer's. Here's another view.
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See how the brain shrinks and fluid filled spaces expand.
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That's Alzheimer's crippling the ability to think and to plan.
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And also look here at the hippocampus. It shrivels.
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The small sea horse shape's structure allows us to form new memories
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but it's also the first to disintegrate.
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So, how does this all happen?
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It starts inside the wrinkled part of the brain here called the cortex,
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where billions of brain cells interconnecting trillions of ways to create these neuron forests,
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tiny electric charges move signals like a baby's cry to each neuron,
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to a junction called the synapse, where chemicals called neurotransmitters leap across the gap,
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carrying the cry to more and more neurons and the memory is born.
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But in Alzheimer's, protein pieces called beta amyloid begin to clump together,
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while another protein called Tau starts to fall apart,
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creating plaques and tangles, that blocks signals and nutrients from getting through.
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Cells begin to die. New memories cannot take hold.
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The ability to think and plan deteriorates.
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Personality and behavior is affected. And ultimately, the once mighty brain is no more.
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Just south of Malaysia and north of Indonesia, you'll find the island nation of Singapore,
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and that's where we found ISS International School.
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Thank you for watching and requesting at CNNStudentNews.com.
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On the other side of the Pacific, we come to the community of Cloverdale, Oregon.
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The Bobcats are there, watching from Nestucca High School.
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And watching from the southern U.S., in the community of Cut Off, Louisiana,
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hello to South Lafourche High School. The Tarpons are on the roll.
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Will the Hyperloop become a new mode of transportation?
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On paper, it's safe, it's incredibly fast, it's not dependent on the weather.
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It's relatively green, and it wouldn't cost much for travelers to use.
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But in reality, it's unproven.
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There are concerns about safety, whether passengers might feel claustrophobic,
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or if they'd even be able to stand up inside the vehicle.
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The big question is whether the actual cost to build a Hyperloop
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and someone will have to build one, will go well beyond initial estimates.
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Some companies are finding out.
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Those tubes could be the future of travel.
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We went to the middle of the desert where one company has started building tech
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they say will revolutionize transportation, Hyperloop Technologies.
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Hyperloop, an idea for what the future of transportation could one day look like,
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famously scrawled on a napkin by tech magnate Elon Musk.
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It almost looks like science fiction,
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you sit in a pot and are catapulted through a depressurize tube at over 700 miles per hour.
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Elon Musk came up with the idea, but open source it, challenging anyone in the world to make it a reality.
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Two companies took on the task.
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One called Hyperloop Transportation Technologies is made up of volunteers around the world
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who engineer in exchange for stock options.
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And then there's Hyperloop Technologies, similar name, different team.
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The proof point was when in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina,
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they actually, you know, for the first time, achieved human flight in an airplane.
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For us, our Kitty Hawk moment is building our test track,
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three-mile test track and doing that by the end of 2016,
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and hitting over 700 miles per hour with our system.
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And Pishevar says Hyperloop won't be limited to just moving people.
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The top 15, 1-5, cargo ships in the world pollute the world more than all the cars in the world combine.
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That's a billion parts. And so, you have a cleaner, more efficient and less expensive solution.
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Sleeping with sharks.
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Aquarium de Paris and Airbnb are offering guests a chance to sleep in an underwater room.
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The bedroom is submerged in a tank holding 35 sharks.
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Guests will also enjoy a meal and a tour of the aquarium.
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Three winners will be selected to spend the night in April.
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Freediver and shark conservationist Fred Buyle will host the guests. .
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After the event, the shark-themed bedroom will be used as a study center for marine biologists
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If the person who shot this video says, "My grandma can dead-lift more than you,"
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he might be right.
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This is Shirley Webb. She's 78 years old.
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That bar in front of her weighs 225 pounds and she's not just lifting it once.
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Come on, she's going for three reps, at least as far as we can see.
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Maybe she can do more. What's crazy is she didn't lift at all until she was 76.
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Now, she says the harder she works out, the better she feels.
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And when it comes to leg days,
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she's there with barbells on, pulling more than her own weight, giving everyone a lift.
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She's a truly a gym-spiration, sweeping the gym-nation.
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Proof it's never too late to work in or workout.
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I'm Carl Azuz, and you can bench we'll press on with more news tomorrow.