Children of ISIS, iRobot, Made in America* -- "CBSN: On Assignment"
Children of ISIS
As the war in Mosul comes to an end and ISIS retreats, legions of young victims are being left behind. Without help, they may pose a long-term threat to the security of the region and the world at large.
Children were uniquely victimized by ISIS. First, as bystanders caught in a brutal war, but more shockingly, as soldiers who were recruited, indoctrinated with a deadly ideology, then trained to kill and fight on the battlefield. As they are freed from ISIS, traumatized and untreated, they're now melting back into society -- still heavily influenced by their experience.
Sherri Talabany is one of the loudest voices calling for help. A former U.S. diplomat now living in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil, Talabany is president and founder of SEED, an NGO helping victims of ISIS. She fears that many recent arrivals desperately need help, or risk posing a danger not only to themselves and their families, but to the country and the world.
She observes, "the boys that were in DAESH training camp ... were taught nothing but violence against their own families. Hatred and violence. they've been involved in murder, they've been involved in torture."
Sherri says, "The terrible thing about the experience is, nobody knows what is going to happen next."
"What we're learning about this youth is that we need a very long term engagement and it needs to be very consistent, and it needs to be very intensive."
"If we have this whole generation untreated and suffering from these traumatic events ... We're just going to be prone to another wave and cycle of ISIS or Al Qaeda 3.0."
iRobot -- Japan's Robot Revolution
Japan is facing a population collapse that threatens its very existence. As with many of its problems, Japan is not looking for conventional solutions. It's pressing forward in its own, uniquely Japanese way. The world's third largest economy is looking to buttress its diminishing human population with a growing population of robots.
Japan's robot revolution was explored during "CBSN: On Assignment" -- a new primetime documentary series which premiered Monday, July 31, 2017, on the CBS Television Network and on CBSN, the network's 24/7 streaming news service.
Japan is in crisis because humans aren't having enough babies. The country has one of the world's lowest birthrates. Coupled with a strict immigration policy, the nation's numbers are on the decline, and they're about to reach freefall.
Enter Japan's robots. In a laboratory in Japan, roboticists are working on perfecting highly realistic humanoids who look, and in some cases, fidget and move, just like humans. They will one day walk amongst us.
"Sometimes we'll run her in a way that she's purely learning and she's imitating people or she's learning from data and when she does that it's really hard to know what she's gonna do next. Somehow she seems more alive that way," says one robotics researcher at the University of Osaka, home to the world's most advanced humanoids.
Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro is known as the Godfather of Humanoids. He is renowned for his robotic clone Geminoid. Ishiguro explains that his real motivation is to understand what it means to be human by developing humanoid robots. He envisions a day when robots can be called upon to help sustain a certain quality of life in Japan.
Made in America*
A CBS News investigation team spent four months tracking more than 200 Eastern Europeans building U.S. auto factories
CBS News collected hundreds of videos and photos they posted on social media proudly showing off their American jobs, their work IDs, the money they were making, and the B1/B2 visas that got many of them into the United States. The visa costs less than $200 and allows foreigners to come and go for ten years. Visa holders are not allowed to work construction unless they are supervising a project which is not what appeared to be happening.
Former workers confirmed to CBS News that the practice had been apparent as far back as 2013, and our investigation found that it continues to this day. Our investigation took us to a town in Northern Slovenia called Ptuj, home to at least eight companies we knew to be supplying workers to U.S. construction sites. A former worker named Stjepan Papes had agreed to meet us at his friend's cabin across the border in Croatia. Papes worked for a Slovenian subcontractor called ISM Vuzem until last year.
After a tour and a glass of homemade wine, he showed us his ID cards from three major automakers in the U.S., and told us how he and other workers were coached by their employer to get past U.S. Customs and immigration on a B1/B2 visa.
"When we are arrived in the United States on the immigration for the immigration agent, agents we must say that we are supervisor here," Papes told Duthiers.
"But you're not a supervisor?" Duthiers asked.
"No way. No," Papes replied.
"When you told the customs official that you were coming in as a supervisor, did he ask you any questions?
"He is asking "You work for what company?" "Where we will stay?" and I have this paper I just give him the paper. I just give him the address where I'm living and they say "you're OK."