Coming up next on NewsDepth... The U.S.

and Israel launched a military attack on Iran.

We learn about a superstar sharpshooter born and raised in Ohio.

Margaret shares stories of famous female scientists.

Plus, a student is developing a battery powered by seawater.

NewsDepth is now!

The U.S.

and Israel launched strikes on Iran in an attempt to take down Iran's regime.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Gabriel Kramer.

Thank you for joining us.

A regime is a word used to describe a government, usually an authoritarian government.

Iran has also launched retaliatory attacks targeting U.S.

facilities and countries in the Middle East.

Operation Epic Fury is a military campaign coordinated by the United States and Israel, that was launched on the February 28th of this year.

President Trump has indicated the military operation is aimed at overturning Tehran's government, following failed diplomatic negotiations over Iran's nuclear program.

They've rejected every opportunity to renounce their nuclear ambitions, and we can't take it anymore.

after.

The aim is to put an end to the threat of Iran regime The State Department also warned all Americans living or visiting the Middle East to immediately leave almost the entire region and to contact the State Department if they need any help.

It will be a variety of methods, charter flights, military flights and transports, expanded commercial opportunities and in some cases, land routes that will allow them to go to neighboring countries.

The Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, is supporting the U.S.

and Israel, calling Iran the principal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East.

While others are more critical, the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, calling it dangerous for all.

And across the U.S., people took to the streets with mixed emotions.

But, I don't see this as a war.

This is a rescue mission of 90 million Iranian people from this terrorist regime.

We ask USA, Israel to hear our voice.

We want the Iran to be free.

U.S.

strikes on Iran have injected more instability into the US economy.

And while skyrocketing crude oil prices have pushed gas prices higher, the pumps aren't the only place consumers could feel a squeeze.

Karin Caifa is in Washington with a look at how an extended conflict could impact households.

Economists say the impact of the Iran war on the US economy will depend upon how long it lasts.

If instead of four weeks we're talking about four months or longer.

Very different discussion.

So duration is key to economic impact.

The conflict in the Middle East has sent crude oil prices soaring, a spike playing out at the gas pumps this week.

Meghna Maharishi, airline reporter for Skift, says higher oil prices could eventually impact the cost of flying.

It is hard to tell how much, an increase in jet fuel prices might impact airfares just because airfares are mostly a product of supply and demand.

But jet fuel is definitely like a factor.

Covering higher transportation costs, whether by air or truck impacts companies' bottom lines.

The conflict is also prompting shipping vessels to avoid the Strait of Hormuz off Iran's southern coast.

Michael Goldman, general manager for North America at Caru Containers, says taking the long way costs more.

We're seeing the routes that ships having to take be much longer, much more costly.

Going around the Horn of Africa instead of going through the Strait of Hormuz on the Red sea.

So and we're definitely seeing cost increases to the carriers to, to make those journeys.

Uncertainty about whether companies will increase the price of their goods and boost inflation may encourage the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates steady.

Delaying relief to American consumers collectively carrying record household debt from higher mortgage credit card and auto loan balances.

Thanks for the report, Karin.

Now on to more news.

March is Women's History Month and that makes this the perfect time to spotlight trailblazing women like Annie Oakley, whose talent and determination made her an international icon.

Annie Oakley rose from a difficult childhood in rural Ohio to become one of the most celebrated sharpshooters in the entire world.

With unmatched skill and steady determination, she traveled across the U.S.

and Europe performing for presidents, royalty and millions of amazed spectators.

Her success shattered expectations about what women could achieve during women's History Month.

Annie's legacy reminds us how women have long been breaking barriers and redefining what's possible.

Zaria has this week's Know Ohio all about Annie Oakley When you think of an international superstar, I bet the first person to pop into mind is maybe an athlete, or an actress or a musician.

But how about a gunslinging gal?

Because back in the days of the wild, wild West, sharpshooter Annie Oakley was famous around the globe.

Before her rise to fame, Annie was an Ohio kid.

She was born in 1860 in Darke County.

Her rural childhood was anything but fancy.

Annie's father died when she was six, leaving behind her mother and seven children.

They struggled to make ends meet on their small farm.

Annie helped out by trapping animals for food.

And legend has it, she shot her first squirrel when she was only eight years old By the time she was 15, Annie was such a good hunter that she started selling the game she shot to shops and inns around Ohio.

She earned enough money to pay off her mother's farm.

She was becoming well known in the region for her skills.

Shortly after she turned 16, Annie entered a contest near Cincinnati against a professional shooter named Frank Butler.

Apparently, Frank was surprised to find his competition was a barely five foot tall teenaged girl.

But perhaps he was even more surprised when she beat him.

Of the 25 birds they were supposed to shoot, Annie didn't miss a single one.

Frank did pretty good too, though, only missing one bird.

But this was just the beginning of the story of Annie and Frank.

Clearly, he didn't hold a grudge because within one year they were married and they lived together happily for 50 years.

Annie joined Frank's professional shooting act, and over time she became the main performer, while Frank became her manager.

She could shoot dimes thrown into the air or the flame of a burning candle, and she could split a playing card in half on the inside.

With one bullet, Annie could hit a target while riding a moving horse or by shooting backwards over her shoulder using a mirror.

Basically, she was a super skilled sharpshooter.

She was the star attraction of Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show for almost 17 years.

During that time, she and Frank traveled throughout the United States and Europe, living mostly on the road in tents.

In Paris, she demonstrated her shooting skills for millions of spectators, including the French president and the King of Senegal.

In Europe, she also performed for the Queen of England, the King of Italy and the German Kaiser.

And that's how she became an international superstar.

When she returned to the United States after a three year tour of Europe, the American public was totally fascinated with her.

She was even featured in one of the very earliest motion pictures created by light bulb inventor Thomas Edison.

You can see her shooting glass balls being thrown in the air.

Today, you can see many of Annie Oakley personal possessions and memorabilia at the Garst Museum and National Annie Oakley Center in Greenville.

There's also an annual Annie Oakley Festival at the Darke County Fairgrounds every summer, complete with a parade and, of course, a shooting contest.

I got to check out that festival.

Thank you, Zaria.

Now let's visit the town of Barre in Vermont.

It is known as the granite capital of the entire world.

Granite is a very hard rock that is used for building.

Granite can be used as kitchen countertops, tiles, headstones, and even monuments like Mount Rushmore.

And women have helped make the granite industry in Vermont thrive.

But they have typically worked in offices until now.

Reporter Sophia Thomas introduces us to one woman who was breaking new ground by way of teaching more women to carve onto stone.

Chunks of rock and humming tools artist Heather Milne Ritchie's Barre studio.

Her canvas, a three ton slab of granite.

This is a gravestone that's going to Hope Cemetery to be set in the spring.

Milne Ritchie formed Bonnie Wee LLC ten years ago to tell stories through granite.

She carves headstones, among other creations, turning blank rocks into personalized memorials.

I invited the customers to come into the studio to see the stone, to meet me, to talk about their loved one.

Sometimes I'll ask people, what kind of music did they like to listen to?

What kind of music do you like to listen to?

And I'll play that music while I'm working to kind of get in a zone to feel closer to them.

It's rare enough to know how to carve granite, a particularly hard rock with a shrinking base of capable carvers.

Milne Ritchie bucks another trend.

You're the only full time female granite carver in Vermont.

Yes.

After years working as an apprentice, she wanted to teach other women how to carve granite.

How can I bring other people into it so that we don't lose it?

She takes on a Vermont Folklife Center intern every year.

High school students and adults like Arielle Edelman, who wanted to follow in Milne Ritchie's footsteps.

If you hadn't had a female mentor like Heather, do you think you ever would have gotten into this?

No.

Definitely not.

Yeah, I think I think it's an intimidating, like craft to begin with.

So much of what has made it appealing and feel accessible and made me want to keep going is Heather and the environment that she's created here.

Milne Ritchie says many of the women who apprentice are carving out time to learn amidst work and family life.

She tries to make it more accessible by lowering studio rental costs, or simply asking for help around the studio in exchange for lessons.

We're meeting people where they are, not just a skill level, but a lifestyle level.

Very cool.

Thank you, Sophia.

From women in trade let's switch gears to learn about women in science.

Marie Curie, Marie Tharp and Jane Goodall each broke barriers in their fields, making groundbreaking discoveries despite facing challenges as women in science.

Their work from uncovering radioactivity to mapping the ocean floor to redefining our understanding of chimpanzees continues to shape the world today.

In this week's Spot on Science, Margaret introduces us to these female scientists who push past prejudices to make amazing discoveries.

Think of the most famous scientist you've learned about.

Is it Isaac Newton?

Or how about Albert Einstein?

Well, I'm here to tell you.

Don't forget about the fearless females who have made amazing scientific discoveries, too.

Take Marie Curie, for example.

Curie is famous for her research of X-rays and radioactivity.

That's when rare elements give off energetic particles.

Curie was born in Poland in 1867, when girls there were not allowed to attend college.

But Curie was determined to go anyways, so she spent years working as a governess, and eventually saved up money to move to France and attend university at the Sorbonne.

She met her husband Pierre.

Together, the two discovered two new radioactive elements radium and polonium.

In 1903, Curie and her husband won the Nobel Prize for physics, and then again in 1911, Curie won the prize for chemistry.

She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the first person to win two.

From Marie Curie.

How about another Marie Marie Tharp?

Tharp is best known for her work mapping out the ocean floor, a pretty big task!

before her time, people used to think that the ocean floor was flat and featureless.

Her maps proved them wrong.

During World War II Tharp earned a master's degree in geology.

Usually, women weren't allowed in the program, but because so many men were serving in the war, she snagged a spot.

Far partnered with Bruce Heezen to map out the ocean floor.

Once again, as a woman, she wasn't allowed to participate in ways that men could.

She was not allowed on the research boats that went out to measure how deep the ocean was.

Tharp was left on dry land to turn the measurements into a map.

She later wrote about it.

I had a blank canvas to fill with extraordinary possibilities, a fascinating jigsaw puzzle to piece together, mapping the world's vast hidden seafloor.

It was a once in a lifetime.

Once in the history of the world opportunity for anyone, but especially for a woman in the 1940s.

In 1977, she and Heezen released their map of the entire ocean floor called the World Ocean Floor Panorama.

The map revealed that the ocean floor is full of features, canyons, mountains, and very important ridges.

Thorpe noticed one ridge in particular.

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, went all the way around the Earth.

Here the Earth's plates spread apart, causing continental drift.

But it wasn't until much later that others accepted what Tharp found to be true.

Now here's one more female scientist for you who wasn't monkeying around.

Have you heard of Jane Goodall?

She spent nearly 60 years studying chimpanzees.

In 1960, when she was just 26 years old, Goodall went to western Tanzania to study primates.

Despite having no formal training by living near the chimpanzees and watching them closely, she was able to make several big discoveries.

First off, she learned that chimpanzees eat meat before people thought they were vegetarians.

Then she discovered that they made and use tools.

Specifically, she saw chimpanzees using tools to fish for termites in holes.

For almost two years, Goodall was accepted by a group of chimpanzees into their troop.

She was able to observe their personalities and behaviors as if she was part of the group.

So as you can see from the ocean floor to the tree tops.

Female scientists have been pushing past people saying no to make big discoveries with lasting impacts.

Thank you, Margaret.

That brings us to our poll for the week.

And this is an easy one.

Who is your favorite female scientists?

There are so many great female scientists, we can never fit them all into a poll question.

So let's keep it simple.

We'll pick from the ones we learned about in the last segment.

Jump over to our poll page to vote.

You can choose between Marie Curie, Marie Tharp, Jane Goodall, or someone else.

On our last episode, we heard about a historical statue in Marietta that the city is trying to move indoors to preserve it.

But not everyone agrees, and we wanted to know where do you stand - Should the statue be moved?

About 63% of you think the monument should be kept where it has always been.

While another 37% said it should be moved to help preserve it.

Thank you all for voting.

We just learned about Jane Goodall, an amazing female scientist who studied gorillas in their natural habitats.

She has inspired women across the world to care for gorillas and monkeys and to study animals in science.

I wonder if NewsHound could find someone like this.

Let's toss it over to him to see what he found for this week's Petting Zoo.

Hey, NewsHound!

What are you up to today?

Just out for a walk.

I trust you already got this week's Petting Zoo ready, right?

Look at him go.

Oh, cool.

You found a story about a woman who founded a nonprofit rescue for monkeys and apes.

To learn more about Deborah Misotti and her work, click the Petting Zoo thumbnail at the bottom of this episode page.

Thanks as always, NewsHound.

Now onto some cool students.

A Florida doctoral student is working on developing a battery powered by seawater.

Experts say the technology could change how military submarines operate, allowing them to stay underwater longer.

Justin White has the details.

Inside the Famu.

FSU College of Engineering Destiny Law is building a lithium sea water flow battery designed for unmanned submarines and underwater vehicles.

Something that can help our military.

Like for submarines, right now, they have to like, come back to the surface to, like, recharge and stuff.

And they can sometimes have to stay for like hours or sometimes even days to recharge.

And that's like very dangerous for like our soldiers.

So that so with our battery, they won't if they do have to come back up to like recharge, it's only for like a few like maybe max 30 minutes or so.

By incorporating seawater into the battery's chemistry Law says the system could deliver more than ten times the energy of traditional lithium ion batteries.

Her research is the first of a renewed partnership between Florida A&M University and the Boeing Company.

Working with Destiny actually made this quite exciting, you know, because Destiny was so dedicated to the potential of this from the very beginning.

And not only that, you could see by coming the weekends doing the work for these shows, she was really excited.

It's been great, actually, to have Destiny working on this one, and we hope she will actually continue this project for the next 3 or 4 years.

Again, in fact, we were looking for other students to continue her work.

Law is continuing her work and research, taking a key step to real world development.

But this didn't happen without setbacks.

Finally, being able to get that success after all those failures was like the best part of like my research, because coming in, I had very limited battery knowledge, didn't really have like battery knowledge behind me.

So coming, I was like, it's a whole a whole new world for me.

And that was like the most exciting part, like to open up a new space that I've never been in as a electrical engineer.

After graduating this spring, Destiny will head to Boeing to work full time.

Moving on.

Champion C-H-A-M-P-I-O-N, champion.

This next story is about a two time spelling bee champ, and 10th grader helping other students reach their spelling goals.

The high school student is hosting workshops in California, offering a free resource to younger students.

Melissa Mecija has details.

He's older and a little taller, Mihir Konkapaka is now a 10th grader at Westview High School.

But looking back, making it to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 2022 and 2023 was fun, exciting, but also a little scary.

It's really nerve wracking.

It is kind of intimidating because it's like, you know, like your fate is right in front of you.

The high schooler now is giving back to help other kids with their spelling goals.

I think my favorite thing of participating in the bee is, I think, like learning the words and understanding like the meanings behind them.

You can't memorize every single word.

Mihir holds free workshops for kids and parents interested in the spelling bee.

Back when I was in like, you know, that middle school there really was no local resources for the spelling bee.

You're given the word list for regionals and that's it.

You're kind of left in the dark about what to do.

Mihir worked hard to reach the national bee.

He eventually had a spelling tutor who helped him, but admits it was pricey.

Having help shouldn't be gatekept by some sort of monetary barrier.

And so having free workshops like this is, in my opinion, really important into making sure that we're able to do like San Diego to be a kind of more competitive region.

He recently expanded his reach earlier this year, Mihir partnered with the county to hold a workshop at the office of Education building.

He advises not just to memorize the words.

I think getting the words in your vocabulary, understanding where words come from, root words will help you decipher the meaning of words that you come across in the future.

As far as what he wants to do in the future, Mihir doesn't know yet.

He's interested in math, science, and of course, linguistics.

But whatever he does, you can thank the spelling bee for playing a role in guiding his future.

It doesn't really matter if you win or lose doing the spelling bee, because the skills that you gain by simply preparing is enough.

You win by getting the studying and the experience of, you know, learning the words and learning everything.

Great job Mihir.

If you remember, way back in episode four of the season, we introduced you to Aarit, the Ohio Civics Bee champion.

Aarit taught us that it's really important to be engaged in your community so that you can use your leadership to make a difference in your community.

Well, this week, we're going to tell you about a group of high school students, all from Akron City Schools, who have been selected by their teachers and peers to represent the student body on the Akron School Board.

And their work has earned them this week's A-plus Award.

Scholar Voices focuses on engaging scholars representing all of Akron's high schools to develop programs and help to use their perspective to improve the school district.

We were able to catch up with Piper, an 11th grader, and Milan, a 12th grader at Ellet Community Learning Center.

Milan told us that he's really proud of the work he's doing.

he knows that by using his leadership skills, he can really make a difference for his classmates.

Piper told us that she's really happy to be part of the group as well.

She is new to Akron, having only moved to the city as a ninth grader.

Piper told us that her work has really helped her become a part of the city and her school.

At Firestone Community Learning Center.

We were able to meet Whitman, a 10th grader.

Darelle, a 12th grader, and Xyia an 11th grader.

Whitman told us that he's been focusing his work on transportation and making sure students have safe and efficient transportation to and from school.

Darelle told us that he's focused on sustainability, and he's even working on a research project focused on coral reefs.

He's even working with the newly elected mayor on climate issues.

Xyia told us that she focuses a lot of her work on the nonprofit organization she started called Limitless Dreams.

The organization works with disabled athletes and helps them find opportunitie to train and compete.

The last student we met was Kaysie at Akron Early College High School.

Kaysie is active in the coding club and on the dance team at her school.

She told us that she's been able to develop her networking skills as a member of the Scholars Voice program.

She told us that being a leader has really helped her learn how to communicate her ideas and be more confident.

This week's A-plus award goes to the students representing Akron's high schools in the Scholars Voice program.

We're impressed by their leadership inside and outside of the schools and motivated by their determination to make their schools and community the best it can be For our write-to-us this week, we'd love to learn about more impressive Ohio students.

Who is the most impressive student or group of students at your school, and what qualities or accomplishments make them stand out?

You can use our inbox form online to share your stories.

And you can consider this a submission for the A-plus Award.

So don't forget to add the name of your school and your teacher so we can reach out to your classroom.

Last week, we recapped President Donald Trump's first State of the Union address for his second term.

And we asked you to write a State of your School speech.

Let's see what you had to say by opening our inbox.

A fourth grader from Botkins School in Botkins said That is great.

A fourth grader from Barr Elementary in Canton said That is a great program.

A fifth grader from Nordonia School in Northfield said, I would love to sit on that bench.

A fifth grader from DeWitt Elementary in Cuyahoga Falls said.

I got to check out that arts walk!

A fifth grader from Kensington Intermediate School in Rocky River said That is amazing.

100 years.

Thank you all for writing.

It's amazing to hear how your school pride goes from the classroom out to your community.

I'm afraid we're all out of time for today's show, but we will be back next week with more news and more stories.

Until then, you can keep the conversation going because we always like to hear from you.

And there are plenty of ways for you to stay in touch with us.

You can write to us at 1375 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio.

Our zip code here is 44115.

You can email us at newsdepth@ideastream.org Plus, you can catch all of our special segments on YouTube.

Hit subscribe if you're old enough so you don't miss out on any of our new videos.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Gabriel Kramer.

See you next week.

NewsDepth is made possible by a grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.