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How filming chores is training robot housekeepers    May 5, 2026

 

Hello, everyone. Hope you're having a terrific Tuesday. I'm Natasha Chen in for Coy Wire, who is out on a very cool assignment today.

 

You'll hear more about that later. I've got lots of important stories to tell you about on this May 5th, 2026, or Cinco de Mayo. Today marks the hugely popular and often misunderstood Mexican holiday.

 

While the 5th of May is widely confused for Mexican Independence Day, Cinco de Mayo actually celebrates a Mexican victory over France at the Battle of Puebla back in 1862. A small force under the command of Ignacio Zaragoza defeated a much larger French contingent. And the rest, as they say, is history.

 

contingent [kǝnˈtɪndʒǝnt] n. 分遣队；代表团

 

And if you're still wondering, Mexican Independence Day is actually celebrated on September 16th, commemorating the Mexican War of Independence from Spain. While Cinco de Mayo is still celebrated across Mexico to this day, it's also become a wildly popular springtime celebration in the U.S. over the years. So if you're planning on grabbing some tacos and guac after school to celebrate, now you know why.

 

taco [ˈtɑko] n. 炸玉米餅（或捲）

guacamole [ɡwɑkǝˈmolɪ] n. 鳄梨色拉酱；酪梨酱( guac = guacamole )

 

Now to a major development that's upending the world of air travel, the collapse of Spirit Airlines. The pioneering budget airline abruptly ceased global operations this weekend following years of financial struggles. The sudden shutdown left thousands of passengers stranded and many more scrambling to change travel plans.

 

Our Rafael Romo has more on how the impact is being felt at the world's busiest airport.

 

Passengers' attitudes about what's happening with the shuttering of Spirit Airlines can be described with one word, confusion.

 

shutter [ˈʃʌtɚ] v. 关（店）；停止（营业）

 

When we got to the Spirit Airlines in Atlanta earlier today, the area was cordoned off.

 

cordon [ˈkɔrdṇ] v. 包圍隔離（某地區）（常與 off 連用）

 

Signs that normally direct passenger traffic were set up as barriers and screens had a message for passengers saying the following, and here I quote, we regret to inform you that Spirit Airlines has ceased global operations. All Spirit flights have been canceled and customer service is no longer available. It has been our honor, it says, to bring friends and families closer together for 34 years.

 

This decision will put 17,000 workers out of a job, including 14,000 Spirit employees and thousands of contractors and other people whose jobs depend on Spirit and its operations at multiple airports around the country.

 

Spirit Airlines' demise has stranded thousands of passengers who have to adjust plans and perhaps millions who have tickets for future dates. Customers have been instructed not to come to the airport.

 

demise [dɪˈmaɪz] n. 死亡；终止

 

Those who book directly through the airline with a credit or debit card will be issued refunds and have been instructed to rebook travel on other carriers including JetBlue, Southwest, Delta and United Airlines, all of which have announced they are offering lower cost rescue fares so that Spirit customers can rebook flights.

 

fare [fɛr] n.（交通工具的）票价

 

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said some last-minute efforts intended to save the airline were ultimately unsuccessful.

 

The president was like a dog on a bone trying to figure out a way to keep Spirit afloat.

 

like a dog witha bone「像咬住骨头的狗」，形容一个人非常坚持、执着、死心眼，对某件事物或争论咬住不放，不达到目的不罢休。

 

He was concerned about the employees of Spirit. I was in the Oval many times hearing him talk about the employees and the customers. In the end, this was a creditor issue.

 

creditor [ˈkrɛdɪtɚ] n. 债权人；贷方

 

Again, they have the final say of whether they want to do a deal with the government, but also from the government's perspective, we oftentimes don't have a half a billion dollars laying around in a spare account that we can put into a bailout of an airline.

 

lie around 乱放，乱搁, 无所事事

bailout [ˈbеlˌaʊt] n. 紧急（财政）援助；纾困

 

And let's remember, Spirit filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2024, but then emerged from it in March of the following year 2025, only to file again five months later in February. The airline was able to reach a deal with its creditors to move forward, but then fuel prices surged and ultimately contributed to its demise.

 

Spirit is the first significant U.S. airline in nearly 25 years to go out of business because of financial problems.

 

Three people are dead andat least three others are sick following a suspected outbreak of Hantavirus aboard a cruise ship in the Atlantic Ocean. Hantavirus is a rare but deadly disease carried by rodents.

 

hantavirus [ˈhɑntəˌvaɪrəs] n. 汉他病毒

 

It can pass to humans through contact with their saliva, urine, or droppings, causing severe and often deadly respiratory issues.

 

dropping [ˈdrɑpɪŋ] n.（常复数）鸟兽的粪便

 

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 40 percent of people who develop symptoms may die. The ship in question, the m/v Hondius, is currently anchored near Cape Verde, an island nation off Africa's western coast.

 

About 150 passengers and 70 crew members are believed to be on board. The company that owns the ship says health officials have visited the boat, but passengers are not allowed to disembark yet.

 

disembark [ˌdɪsɪmˈbɑrk] v. 登陆；上岸；下车

 

And what's happening right now is very real for all of us here. We're not just a story. We're not just headlines. We're people.

 

People with families, with lives, with people waiting for us at home.

 

Health officials say a 70-year-old man and his wife are among those who died and another person is in intensive care. Two symptomatic crew members have required urgent medical care as well.

 

The World Health Organization is working to provide medical care to the passengers and crew. The team is conducting a full assessment of the situation and says there's no current public health threat.

 

Now to an update on an animal welfarestory that's gained national attention.

 

1,500 beagles at a Wisconsin medical testing facility are getting a new leash on life thanks to a deal the company struck with animal advocacy groups. The dogs made headlines earlier this year after activists broke into the property in a bid to recover them. Now they're finally being freed.

 

beagle [ˈbiɡḷ] n. 小獵犬

strike [straɪk] v. 簽訂（合同等）

 

The first batch of dogs arrived at local volunteers' farms over the weekend, where they were checked by teams of veterinarians. The dogs will now head to shelters across the country to embark on their new lives. But the volunteers who helped make it all happen hope this batch of beagles sends a bigger message.

 

Let's all come together and as a nation put pressure on our politicians to do the right thing for animals.

 

All right, it's time for 10-second trivia. Which country has the highest robot-to-worker ratio in its economy? Is it the United States, China, Japan, or Russia? The answer here is Japan.

 

According to the International Federation of Robotics, Japan had more than 400 industrial robots per 10,000 manufacturing workers in 2025, including receptionist servers and factory workers.

 

receptionist [rɪˈsɛpʃǝnɪst] n. 接待員

 

While robots are being developed to help make life easier across the globe, the most important part of their training is how to be more human. And how they do that is by identifying patterns and copying examples from real workers.

 

It's a training so specific that coders are having trouble finding enough people to do it. So one company has a unique solution. Our Stephanie Yang has more.

 

coder [ˈkodɚ] n. 编写计算机程序的人员; 程序设计师

 

Looking for a side gig? You've seen humanoid robots do backflips, cartwheels, and kung fu. Now their next big mission is cleaning. But first, they'll have to learn how, using videos of humans doing it first.

 

side gig（主要工作之外的）副业，兼职

gig [ɡɪɡ] n. any job, esp. one of short or uncertain duration

backflip [ˈbækflɪp] n. 后空翻

cartwheel [ˈkɑrtˌhwil] n. 侧手翻; （飞机在空中）横翻筋斗

 

That's created a new kind of gig economy, where people are paid by the hour to record themselves doing odd jobs around the house.

 

All around the world, thousands of workers are strapping cameras to their heads before starting on a list of basic tasks like cutting fruit, cleaning countertops, and watering plants. Then the footage is marked up so that robots can translate the visual cues into physical responses.

 

countertop [ˈkaʊntɚtɑp]n.（厨房）操作枱，料理枱

mark up 作标记; 标注

 

This type of human data is turning into a multi-billion dollar industry since companies say it's going to take billions of hours of training before robots can be deployed into people's homes.

 

Analysts say that the data from these videos isn't as effective as having humans guide robots through the tasks themselves, but it's a lot cheaper and faster to collect.

 

As AI advances, developers are combining human and virtual training methods, all in the name of building the world's most advanced Android.

 

Now to a tiny new fur baby giving conservationists big optimism. A zoo in Belgium just welcomed a golden snub-nosed monkey, the first ever born outside of Asia. The Nature Conservancy estimates there are only about 3,000 of these monkeys, native to China, remaining in the wild.

 

snub-nosed（鼻子）短平而上翘的、塌鼻梁的

 

Living in massive troops, up to 300 strong, they hunt for tree lichen, but that's getting harder to find due to habitat loss. Another contributing factor to endangerment? Illegal hunters. Conservationists say mom Lulu and her newborn are a major win in the fight to protect the species.

 

lichen [ˈlaɪkɪn] n.【植】地衣

 

Sometimes saving the planet starts with one tiny life.

 

Today's story getting a 10 out of 10. Hundreds of South Koreans gathered in Seoul to catch Zs and maybe a W. By the Han River, the city of Seoul hosted their third annual Power Nap contest, which is aimed to address the nation's sleep deprivation issue caused by stress and long working hours.

 

catch some Zs: a common idiom for sleeping

 

The competition requirements looked a little different than most. Winner hopefuls came in costumes with full bellies and then finally slept on the job. Participants were judged based on how fast they fell asleep.

 

hopeful [ˈhopfǝl] n. 希望获得成功的人

full belly 饱饱的肚子

 

They wore heart monitors, and a stable reading from the Sleeping Beauty indicated a deep, peaceful slumber.

 

reading [ˈridɪŋ] n. 读数（一件测量设备所显示的数字或量值）

slumber [ˈslʌmbɚ] n.【书】睡眠；微睡

 

All right, superstars, I've got time for two shout-outs for you today. The first one goes to Mr. Samayoa's middle school engineering class at Irving Steam Magnet here in Los Angeles, California.

 

And the next one goes to Mr. McNeil at Wyndham High School in Wyndham, Maine. Thank you all for making us a part of your day. And thanks to all of you for watching.

 

Coy will be back tomorrow. I'm Natasha Chen, and this is CNN 10.