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Middle East Escalating Attacks Show Little of Slowing Down; NASA Launches Mission to Investigate a Potentially Habitable Ocean World; Giant Pandas Officially on Loan; Pumpkin in Europe Weighs Over 2,500 Pounds. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired October 16, 2024 - 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: Hello, what`s up? Hey y`all, how you doing? Welcome to CNN 10, your 10 minutes of news where we simply tell you the
what, letting you decide what to think. I`m Coy Wire.
And today it`s your CNN 10 because of some of you helped us write this show. It`s Your Word Wednesday, so keep an ear out to see if your vocab
word was chosen for the show. Here we go.
First, to an update in the Middle East where tensions continue to rise. Israel, Iran, and militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon have been trading
attacks and are showing no sign of standing down. The groups are fruminous with one another.
Since the October 7th attacks last year, Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in back-and-forth fire that ramped up last month with escalating
attacks from both sides. Over the weekend, a Hezbollah drone entered Israel without setting off warnings before carrying out an attack that killed four
soldiers and injured more than 60 people. As a response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to continue to strike Hezbollah targets
everywhere in Lebanon, including the capital, Beirut.
At the same time, Israel continues to bombard Gaza, issuing evacuation orders to hospitals and blocking food supplies as part of its escalating
offensive in the north. While the U.S. is concerned about growing regional conflict, the Pentagon is sending an advanced anti-missile system to Israel
to help bolster the country`s air defenses. About 100 U.S. troops will travel there to operate the system.
Israeli officials are currently telling the U.S. that they plan to strike Iranian military targets as a retaliation for Iran`s strike on Israeli
military targets on October 1st. It`s an important detail because an Israeli retaliation targeting other sites, like Iran`s nuclear facilities,
could spark a regional war, while a strike on oil fields could send energy prices soaring.
Ten-second trivia. According to scientists, what is the oldest planet in our solar system?
Mars, Neptune, Jupiter, or Venus?
Answer is Jupiter, formed 4.6 billion years ago from dust and gas remnants from the sun`s formation.
Let`s get to an intriguing new mission to Jupiter. NASA`s Europa Clipper spacecraft launched aboard SpaceX`s Falcon Heavy rocket this week. The
Europa Clipper mission, designed to explore its namesake, Jupiter`s moon, Europa, will study one of the solar system`s most promising environments in
our solar system.
This is NASA`s first spacecraft dedicated to studying the moon`s ice- covered ocean world, and it aims to determine whether the moon could be habitable for life as we know it. CNN`s Michael Holmes has more on this
mission.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A vast ocean in a moon hundreds of millions of miles away. That`s what NASA`s new and largest
planetary spacecraft is set to explore. Scientists believe that Europa, one of Jupiter`s many moons, is one of the most promising places to look for
life beyond Earth. The moon, about the same size as our own, is thought to have beneath its icy surface an ocean of water, perhaps encompassing the
entire moon.
LAURIE LESHIN, NASA DIRECTOR OF JET PROPULSION LABORATORY: We, scientists, have been dreaming about a mission like Europa Clipper for more than 20
years. We`ve been working to build it for 10 years. It`s going to be another 10 years, because Jupiter is so far away, until we have all the
science in the bag.
HOLMES (voice-over): The mission is not looking for life on the moon, but rather an environment in which life could survive. The Europa Clipper will
gather information on the thickness of that icy shell, investigate the possible ocean beneath it, and study the geology of the surface.
So, how does an icy moon far away from the Sun have the energy to sustain life? Well, Jupiter`s strong gravity creates tides that stretch and tug the
moon, producing heat.
GINA DIBRACCIO, NASA ACTING DIRECTOR OF PLANETARY SCIENCE DIVISION: Clipper is going to tell us if Europa has all of these ingredients for
life. So, what we learn with Clipper and the habitability of Europa, this is going to pave the way for the future, for future missions to Europa and
elsewhere in our solar system, where we can search more directly for life.
HOLMES (voice-over): This big venture from NASA requires very big equipment. The Europa Clipper is about 16 feet or nearly five meters tall
and more than 100 feet or about 30 meters wide. That`s about the length of a basketball court. The scale of the Clipper is primarily due to its
massive solar arrays. Another big feat for this spacecraft is a poem.
ADA LIMON, U.S. POET LAUREATE: Still, there are mysteries below our sky.
HOLMES (voice-over): U.S. poet laureate Ada Limon wrote an original poem dedicated to NASA`s Europa Clipper mission. The poem will be engraved on
the spacecraft as a way to connect the two worlds, Earth and Europa.
LIMON: We point to the planets we know. We pin quick wishes on stars. From Earth, we read the sky as if it is an unerring book of the universe, expert
and evident.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Now to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. which is set to be the new home of two giant pandas. A pair of three-year-old bears will leave the
giant panda research base near the bears native habitat in Southwest China and they`ll board the Panda Express, a specially chartered cargo jet for a
highly anticipated return of the beloved bears to the U.S. Capitol. This panda diplomacy is a bright spot in the relations between rival superpowers
often at odds over trade, geopolitics and other issues.
CNN`s David Culver has more on the first pandas that China has sent to D.C. in 24 years and the steps they took to prepare for the journey.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We`ve traveled here to Sichuan, China for a rare look at preparing these pandas for their very
long journey.
CULVER (voice-over): We`re in and around the city of Chengdu. It`s known for spicy hot pot. It`s mountainous landscape and giant pandas.
CULVER: We`re actually going to go meet now with some of the folks from the Smithsonian National Zoo from D.C. who have flown here and are part of
the transition team to bring Bao Li and Qing Bao back to the U.S.
We can`t go back there, but that`s where Bao Li and Qing Bao are. They`re in quarantine. And those you saw there were the zookeepers from the
National Zoo, as well as some caretakers from China.
MARIEL LALLY, SMITHSONIAN`S NATIONAL ZOO PANDA KEEPER: So they both have pretty different personalities. Bao Li has a huge personality, so he`s very
vocal. He`s very energetic. Always kind of like up doing something. Qing Bao is the polar opposite. She can be almost always found in a tree or
sleeping on her climbing structure.
CULVER (voice-over): The panda pair will fill a void at the Smithsonian`s National Zoo in Washington, D.C. For the past 11 months, the panda exhibit
has sat empty.
Now as part of the terms of the Smithsonian`s exchange program with China, late last year, the zoo`s three pandas were sent back here to Chengdu.
ELLEN STOFAN, UNDER SECRETARY FOR SCIENCE AND RESEARCH: I don`t think people realize how touched.
CULVER: When you`re here, I mean, in this setting, what is stood out to you?
STOFAN: Here, the sheer number of pandas.
CULVER: It`s amazing, right?
STOFAN: It`s crazy.
CULVER: If you turn here and you`re like, oh, wait, you can go there. You can go there. Nowhere else do we have something like this?
STOFAN: Nowhere else in the scenery is obviously beautiful, and the commitment.
CULVER: Pandas were on the brink of extinction, but in recent years, they`ve moved from endangered to vulnerable. But there`s still more work to
go.
The panda exchange, also called panda diplomacy, dates back more than 50 years now, when China gifted two pandas to the U.S. following President
Nixon`s historic visit. Today, they`re given on loan, and they are a strategic diplomatic tool, serving as ambassadors of hope and spreading
global goodwill. Somehow, pandas were able to unite nations, something we could use about right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: For today`s story, getting a 10 out of 10, we`re giving you pumpkin to talk about, a competition where it`s all about Gourd Big or Go Home, the
annual European Pumpkin Weighing Championship, 12 growers from across Europe competing to see who`s got the biggest, heaviest pumpkin around. One
of the biggest challenges, transporting the pumpkins. Some of them can get squashed. And to fix a broken pumpkin, you could always use a pumpkin
patch, but not in this contest. Gourd vibes for all of you out there today.
We`re carving out some time to send a huge shout out to North Asheboro Middle School in Asheboro, North Carolina. We see you shining bright blue
comets.
And much appreciation to all of you who submitted enticing, outstanding, commanding words for your word Wednesday. Today`s winners are all the
students at St. Charles School in Rochester, New Hampshire for "fruminous," an adjective that means very angry. Well done and thank you for leveling up
our vocabulary today.
Have an awesome one, everyone. Look forward to seeing you right back here tomorrow on CNN 10.
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