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CNN 10
In Stunning Turnaround, Ukraine Recaptures Major Territory; A Look Back At A "Moonshot" Of A Speech; Interview With Inspiring NFL Player Younghoe Koo. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired September 13, 2022 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: What`s up, everyone? I am Coy, aka, Bald Dude, Mr. Clean, and I am humbled and grateful to be hanging with you this week
right here on CNN 10.
Lots to get to you this beautiful Tuesday, so, let`s go. Starting with an update on the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Let`s take 10 to
see where things stand.
Russia`s invasion of Ukraine began February 24th when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military operation in response to what he called
NATO expansion against Russia. The invasion has received international criticism and a lot of countries around the world won`t do business with
Russia anymore, and that has impacted the global economy.
This week, Ukrainian troops have retaken more than 11,000 square miles of territory about the size of Rhode Island, and that`s more than Russian
troops have captured in all operations since April. As Ukraine reclaimed some domain, many military and government officials are celebrating and
some government officials across Russia are campaigning for Putin`s resignation.
But the war is far from over. The Russian government on Monday insisted it`ll achieve its goals in Ukraine and is responding by hitting critical
infrastructure across Ukraine and causing blackouts there. Now, while we may be living in a time of EVs, A.I., robots and drones, the military
tactics of this war make the conflicts look more like they`re taking place a hundred years ago. Check it out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REPORTER (voice-over): Heavy artillery fire and a slow-moving front line, we may be in an era of technological progress, but the Russian invasion of
Ukraine seems to share many similarities with conflicts a hundred years ago.
PROF. MALCOLM CHALMERS, DEPUTY DIRECTOR GENERAL, RUSI: In the West for the last 30 years, we`ve been used to fighting against opponents who in strict
military terms have been greatly inferior in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya.
And one of the key characteristics of those wars it has been that from the start, the United States and its allies have totally dominated the air and
that has made -- their opponents have had to hide.
The biggest difference with this conflict, which makes it more like conventional conflicts, is that neither side completely controls the air,
and that basically means that forces on the ground can move around without immediately being targeted from the air.
That basic political objective of Ukraine is to maintain its sovereignty, controlling as much of its territory as possible. From the Russian point of
view their ideal objective is to destroy Ukraine as an independent state and to either annex it to Russia or to make it a satellite state of Russia.
It`s really critical where that front line is because at some stage, the conflict becomes more frozen and the politics will be determined about
where that front line is.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE (voice-over): It`s 10-second trivia time.
President John F. Kennedy delivered his "we choose to go to the moon" speech from what American university?
Who says Harvard? How about Boston College? Maybe the University of Virginia. Or is it Rice?
In 1962, JFK delivered his moonshot speech from Rice University in Houston, Texas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN F. KENNEDY, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because
they are hard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: Yesterday, President Biden channeled former President John F. Kennedy at his presidential library in Boston on the 60th anniversary of
that famous moonshot speech you just heard. But this time, the topic wasn`t space. It was cancer.
President Biden highlighted his administration`s efforts aimed at, quote, ending cancer as we know it. In his speech, the president planned to draw
attention to new technology that uses blood tests to screen against multiple cancers. Experts agree though that it`s too early to know whether
these tests will have any effect on cancer deaths.
President Biden hopes to move the U.S. closer to the goal he set in February of cutting U.S. cancer fatalities by 50 percent over the next 25
years.
In 2022, the American Cancer Society estimates 1.9 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed and around 60 people will die from the disease.
This initiative is a personal one for President Biden who lost his son Beau in 2015 to bring answer. It`s also a complicated one, as scientists now
understand that cancer is not one disease but hundreds that respond differently to different treatments.
Despite Biden`s attempts to channel President Kennedy`s moonshot program, his current cancer initiative lacks the same level of budgetary support as
the Apollo program, which garnered public investment equaling $220 billion in today`s dollars.
(MUSIC)
WIRE: All right. Many hairs ago, I was an NFL player. So I am pumped to bring you some Tuesday motivation from one of the most improbable success
stories in the league today.
Younghoe Koo, Korean born, couldn`t speak any English when he moved to the U.S. at 12 years old. He was told, you`re not good enough. He was cut from
his team. But now, he`s a pro bowler and one of the highest paid kickers in the NFL.
Athlete or not, for those of you who have a goal to get or a point to prove, Younghoe`s message is this: tough times make us tougher.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: You moved to the U.S. You`re 12 years old. What was that transition like? What was that experience like?
YOUNGHOE KOO, ATLANTA FALCONS KICKER: Well, at the time it was tough like I was in middle school, like I had a Korean friend that was you know in
every single one of my classes, so he can translate for me if he needed to be.
WIRE: You couldn`t even speak English yet.
KOO: I was in ESL for two years. So, you know, I remember like going home because all day I`m just smiling you know like nodding.
WIRE: That`s cool.
KOO: I don`t want to look stupid, but also, I don`t know what`s going on. And then I go home, it`s like I have no idea what happened today. And all
they were saying was just like, hey, my name is this. Nice to meet you, like welcome or something.
WIRE: How did football kind of help with that transition to life here in the States?
KOO: Big time. Without that I don`t think I would have you know known what to do like on the weekends. You know, like I didn`t -- I remember sitting
in a car going to practice with a bunch of my friends and I didn`t know how to ask like, hey, what do you guys do on the weekends?
WIRE: You wanted to hang out.
KOO: Yeah, but I didn`t know how to like phrase that, or even like form a sentence at that time. So I just like -- I remember just like asking out,
like you know I`m bored. But they`re like right now? Like in a car going to practice?
I was like no, no, like on the weekends. So I like just threw stuff together that I remember that feeling. I was like nervous to like say
something because like, you know, I don`t want to sound stupid, you know, at the time.
So then that weekend, they called me to hang out so that`s when I like really like picked up, you know, English and stuff like that. So without
football like, I wouldn`t probably wouldn`t be talking like this or anything like that. So --
WIRE: Did you ever experience, you know, racism being Asian-American growing up?
KOO: I didn`t really take it to heart. Like I didn`t really let anything like come to me just because they say something, like now, like social
media is like that, right?
Everybody got an opinion. Everybody has something to say. Everybody can say something if they want to. It`s not really my responsibility to soak that
all in and absorb them.
My dad taught me, you know, from a young age. He was like, hey, football doesn`t know who`s kicking it.
WIRE: That`s right.
KOO: You`re White, Black, Asian or whatever, like when the ball is flying, they don`t know who kicked it. They just see the result and they see the
ball and they`re like, all right, that kid`s good.
WIRE: Twenty-seven-years-old, has any of this hit you yet?
KOO: No, I learned a lot from my journey. I felt like I made it my rookie year when I won the job going into week one, I was like, oh, this is it,
like I did it, you know?
Fast forward four weeks, I was cut. So I was like, it taught me, I was like, hey, this is never over. Like you got to compete every single day,
like you got to produce. It`s a production business. That`s what the head coach told me at the time when I was getting released.
What was that like when you, you know, you`re at the Chargers, you think I`ve arrived and all of a sudden, you`re out in the streets?
KOO: Right. That was tough. That was tough for sure because for the first time ever in like in October, during the football season, I was just
sitting at home, you know? That was a huge wake up, a kind of realization of like, hey, like what went wrong there? You got to kind of dig in and see
what went wrong and get ready for the next opportunity, so when it comes to this, this doesn`t happen again.
WIRE: What do you hope your story says to the next generation of Asian- Americans?
KOO: I think representation is big because growing up for me in football, there was nobody that looked like me. So it was harder for me to like
visualize like, oh, he`s doing it like I can do it, you know, stuff like that.
If you look at my story, you know, like I didn`t speak English, I didn`t know what football was. I was struggling to say, hey, what are you doing
this weekend to here, you know? Like I think, you know, anybody can if they have a dream and just chase it and work hard, set a plan and go after it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: No matter what you`re going through, surround yourself with good people and remember, you can always gain strength through your struggles.
You`re more powerful than you know.
Speaking of powerful, today`s shout out is going to Cheney Middle School in West Fargo, North Dakota. Go Packers. We hope you and everyone watching
around the world have a wonderful one.
I`m Coy Wire. Thanks for watching CNN 10.
END
