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hello everyone and welcome to the show
hope you had an awesome weekend and
you're ready to make the most of this
Monday April 22nd I'm Coy wire this is
cnn1 and we start today in the nation's
capital Washington DC where the US House
of Representatives passed a $60 billion
Aid bill for Ukraine this weekend this
coming after months of back and forth
between both sides the money will help
Ukraine in its fight against Russia who
invaded its neighbor a little over two
years ago the bill passed with a
bipartisan vote which is somewhat of a
rarity in Congress the final tally 311
to 112 all of the 210 Democrats in the
house voted for the bill along with1
Republicans the bill upset some of the
more conservative Republican house
members including Georgia representative
Marjorie Taylor green who has threatened
to oust Speaker of the House Republican
Mike Johnson for working with Democrats
to pass the bill the speaker is the
leader of the house and they are voted
into that position by other
representatives in the house but even
though they're in charge there's a rule
that if just one member of the house is
upset with how the speaker is performing
they can put forth a motion to vacate
meaning they can make the whole house
vote on whether to fire the speaker from
their position some conservative
Republicans say they are upset about the
bill because they want the money to be
spent here in the United States not
abroad in Ukraine the Democrats and many
other Republicans think the bill is
vital to helping Ukraine a democracy
fight against the authoritarian regime
in Russia now of course the White House
made the ask for these additional funds
for Ukraine back in October and the
president at the time said an address to
the nation that it was in the interest
of US National Security saying that it
should no ground should be SE Ed to
Russia but of course the stalled uh Aid
in Congress only added to the urgency
and over the course of recent months the
US officials uh made the correlation
between Battlefield losses in Ukraine
arguing that that was because they
weren't getting the funding that they
needed and putting the responsibility
squarely at the feet of republicans in
Congress now over the course of time
White House officials have been in touch
with members of Congress and
Congressional staff working furiously
behind the scenes to see this through
and the president Saturday applauding
that it has now happened and hoping that
it crosses the Finish Line soon so that
that Aid can get to Ukraine swiftly next
up we're taking a look at the Doom Loop
no it's not some new roller coaster
coming out it's actually referring to
the effects of increasing office space
vacancies on cities post pandemic a lot
of businesses don't require their
employees to come into work letting them
work from home instead great for some
workers but not so great for the people
who own the office buildings that rely
on companies to pay their leases to rent
space the numbers show that a lot of
businesses are now getting rid of their
office space at the end of last year one
out of every five office spaces in
America's biggest cities were empty and
that's leading to something called a
doom Loop which could hurt these big
cities in New York City there's
currently about 90 million square fet of
office space available for rent you know
including Supply space just to put that
in perspective that's about the size of
35 empire state
buildings since the 2020 pandemic office
vacancy levels in New York City have
risen above 20% the highest level since
the city began recording them in
1984 everybody's affected by this issue
property values office values have
declined thatt lowers tax revenues and
now cities have to cut spending you know
when cities cut spending the city
becomes a less attractive place to live
and people leave and that aggravates the
problem and we get into this vicious
cycle that I've called the urban Doom
Loop
property taxes from commercial offices
typically generate 10% of New York
City's revenue or about 3.4 billion
dollar one way the city can try to
recoup some of those costs and prevent a
so-called Doom Loop is to convert some
of that office space into alternative
use like apartment
buildings I didn't expect it to look so
nice on the
inside when I arrived I saw the outside
I said this is an office building I'm
sure there was cubicle everywhere like
just the process of removing everything
I can't imagine what that looked like I
did meet a friend when he actually
worked here uh in the building uh so I
thought that was really cool knowing
like I don't know where your office was
but like now my dog and my and myself
like could have been my bedroom it's a
16-month lease $4,700 a
month not every building is physically
suitable for a conversion or it might be
very expensive a lot of policy makers
would like to have affordable housings
in these buildings and the problem is
that the math often does not work out
these conversions are not viable if we
force too much affordable housing into
them unless we can subsidize these these
these affordable housing units and
that's where a lot of cities are
currently going they're trying to
subsidize through taxes for example
reduction in property taxes for these
conversions the sort of underbelly if
you will of the Doom Loop is the demise
of the urban
center we being a developer kind of view
it a little bit more optimistically and
it's a moment of
reinvention the Doom Loop is also not
inevitable it depends on the responses
that the policy makers have to the
problems and many cities have already
passed legislation that stimulates
conversion of office to apartment
buildings 10 second trivia what was the
most popular car sold in the United
States last year Ford F series trucks
Toyota Rav 4 Tesla Model y by Honda
CRV go on and toot your own horn if you
said Ford F series that's right that is
the correct
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answer for today's story getting a 10
out of 10 we're taking a road trip
vicariously of course through pumi
newbie a super adventurous traveler who
decided to pack up her tiny car and make
the nearly 5,000 m drive from London
England to Lego Nigeria in Africa all by
herself she slept in the car cooked her
food in there as she journeyed through
the city and desert all in the name of
Adventure I'm solo driving from London
to Lagos everyone was asking me do I
have a 4x4 car am I using a 4x4 car no
I'm using a no this is palumi newbie
she's a global traveler and she just
completed her most daring road trip yet
a drive from London to Lagos in her
regular car a pujo 107 that she's had
for five years London to Legos loading
we are in France guys we made
it well it is my baby that's why I call
it I've never seen anyone do it like
this and it's just just important for me
to make use of what I had so I went for
it I want to show it's possible for
black women like myself to seek
adventure for pelumi that Adventure
involved traveling through around 17
countries including France Morocco Sagal
and sier on I have like a flat layout
bed so you can literally sleep in it um
for quick meals you know I can just cook
up something noodles all of that stuff
and to wash and stuff like that I stayed
in like a lot of camping sites as well
that had the facilities to like you know
freshen up and all of that we made it to
the Sahara
Desert we made it to
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serel bers out of all my trials and
tribulation was the saw in my side it
was so difficult Crossing Liberia
brother sleep there for 2 days so yeah
it's been lots of lessons you know
patience endurance you know being
knocked down and standing up again I had
a car accident um in Ivory Coast um so
that was something you don't plan for it
was bad I guess if it was in the UK the
car probably con there right off
everybody when they saw the videos and
pH they're like that's it the trip is
over you can't go but I was just so
determined we are about to hit the
finale don't roll please after finally
arriving in Lagos 68 days after leaving
London pelumi who was born in Nigeria
was gifted a new car and an apartment by
Lagos State Governor and made a tourism
Ambassador but we really need to just
own our own take ownership of what we
want to do with our life so go for it as
black young girls do Brave things step
out of your comfort zone and be daring
that is some serious determination and
dedication and inspiration shout out to
all the darts in kville Utah who are
joining us from Davis high school today
thank you for all of your determination
and dedication and this shout out goes
to Johnson Jor High School in Cheyenne
Wyoming Firebirds got us feeling kind of
fly go on out and dominate this
motivation Monday as the wise Yoda once
said do or do not there is no try I'm
Coy this is CNN 10 and I'll see you
right back here tomorrow rise up
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