CNN10 2025-01-27
CNN 10
Four Israeli Hostages Reunited With Families as 200 Palestinian Prisoners Released; Rain Brings Relief and Risks. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired January 27, 2025 - 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, sunshine. It is Monday. Happy to start the week with you. I'm Coy Wire. This is CNN 10, where I tell you the what, letting you decide what to think. Let's kick this week off strong and get you your news.
We start in the Middle East. Four Israeli soldiers and hundreds of Palestinians are returning home after a second round of hostage releases were carried out this weekend, all part of a ceasefire deal signed this month. The four hostages freed Saturday had been held in Gaza since the Hamas attacks of October 7th, 2023. That day was the impetus of 15 months of conflict in Gaza.
Before their release, the four female soldiers were brought by Hamas on a stage in Gaza City, where they waved with smiles to the crowds. It was an emotional scene for Israelis watching a live feed from Hostages Square in Tel Aviv.
Israeli officials say the four soldiers are in good health and have been reunited with their families. Following their release, 200 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli detention centers were released in turn. Most of the freed Palestinians were transported to the occupied West Bank, but the Israeli prison service says 70 of the detainees are considered to be dangerous by Israel and are being deported outside of Israel and Palestinian territories.
Supporters gathered in the streets in the West Bank celebrating the prisoners release. Soon after the releases, Israel halted the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza as planned in the deal, saying Hamas failed to release an Israeli female civilian. The ceasefire deal, which took months of painstaking negotiations, continues ahead on shaky ground between Israel and Hamas. Multiple stages still lie ahead before a permanent stop to fighting and rebuilding in Gaza can take place.
After weeks of dealing with the devastating, deadly wildfires, people in Southern California are now preparing for floods and mudslides as heavy rain now hits the fire-scorched area. At least five wildfires are still burning, including the Palisades and Eaton fires.
Our Julia Vargas Jones went along with emergency officials as they work to shore up areas at risk for heavy rains and the threat of mudslides.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAPTAIN GARRETT SAWTELLE, CALIFORNIA NATIONAL GUARD: We're in Altadena California and we're entering the Sierra Madre Villa debris basin.
JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The National Guard deployed to assist first responders just hours after the deadly fires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena began in the first week of January.
This unit part of the Guards Task Force 49 is charged with digging trenches at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California. A race against the rain to protect neighborhoods in and around the burn zone.
SAWTELLE: The fire basically causes it to be a lot more susceptible to erosion.
JONES: Oh wow. Oh, I see this now. So, this is where the water is going to flow.
SAWTELLE: Yes. So, the water will come through there.
JONES: Oh, that is deep.
JONES (voice-over): Their aim to divert water that could trigger dangerous mudslides once rain begins to fall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have two means of loading. We have our excavators and then behind us we have our loader or front wheel loader.
JONES (voice-over): Crews digging pits into hillsides to create dams.
SAWTELLE: So, this portion will capture the sediment rocks vegetation, and then where it opens up the water would flow out.
JONES (voice-over): The whirr and buzz of bulldozers excavators and other heavy machinery a welcome cacophony to a community still reeling from fatal wildfires.
SAWTELLE: So, this was a part of the burn scar. So, the fire did come through here.
JONES (voice-over): Burn scars are among the most vulnerable areas for potential mudslides and even flash flooding.
This has been the driest start to the rainfall season in Southern California in over four decades. The ground is so dry that if the rain falls too fast, soil won't be able to absorb it.
Lieutenant Colonel James Smith is the commander of this operation.
LT. COL. JAMES SMITH, CALIFORNIA NATIONAL GUARD: If we do get significant rainfall, you're going to see a lot of that material behind us here. It's going to move down into this basin.
JONES (voice-over): His mission, he says, is to do whatever's necessary to avoid even further devastation.
SMITH: You can't imagine the tragedy they've all suffered through. We'll be here however long we need to be in order to help this community recover.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Ten-second trivia. What city is home to the oldest operating zoo in the world?
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, London, England, Berlin, Germany, or Vienna, Austria?
Your answer here is Vienna, Austria. The Schonbrunn Zoo there was established in 1752 and is still running today.
Now to Washington's Smithsonian National Zoo where pandemonium is in full effect. On Friday, the zoo debuted two new giant pandas from China, officially welcoming the fuzzy duo to their new home for the next decade. Bao Li and Qing Bao arrived in the U.S. in October but have been in quarantine adjusting to their new home since then.
CNN's Brian Todd got to bear witness to the events this weekend as the duo delighted the onlookers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A bamboo breakfast enjoyed by Bao Li, a giant panda frolicking in his new home. Bao, a three-year-old male and three-year-old female Qing Bao, making their public debut today at Washington's Smithsonian National Zoo.
Qing Bao is known for her tree climbing exploits. Zoo officials say. And we caught her doing her thing. And we saw her male counterpart pushing his oversize ball. Exciting and heartwarming moments for zoo-goers who've waited more than a year to see pandas again.
SARAH CHEW, ZOO VISITOR: It's very exciting that they're back at the zoo, and I'm just here to support them.
TODD: In November 2023, the National Zoo's previous set of pandas, Tian Tian and Mei Xiang, and their cub were sent back to China as a loan agreement expired. These new pandas will be in Washington for ten years, with the goal of getting them to breed. They won't start doing that for at least a couple more years.
In the meantime, Bao Li and Xing Bao, who are considered the equivalent of teenagers, now need to grow. That means a constant diet of bamboo. Lots of it.
MICHAEL BROWN-PALSGROVE, CURATOR OF PANDAS, SMITHSONIAN'S NATIONAL ZO: We offer over 100 pounds of bamboo to each panda every day. They're bringing truckloads, 500,600 pounds, three times a week back to us.
TODD (voice-over): The two pandas are kept in separate areas. Have had three months to acclimate to their habitat here. And zoo officials say they've developed distinct personalities.
BRANDIE SMITH, DIRECTOR, SMITHSONIAN'S NATIONAL ZOO: Qing Bao, these our female and she is, I'll say, a little more independent. She kind of likes to do her own thing. Bao Li definitely loves people. He loves his keepers. He talks to them all the time.
TODD (voice-over): They're part of a diplomatic and scientific cooperation with China that's been around for more than 50 years, since the first pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, arrived at the National Zoo in 1972, a conservation pact that's brought the pandas back from the endangered list.
SMITH: They are still in trouble, but it is a success story.
TODD: And a wildly popular story. Zoo officials tell us 95 percent of the 2 million visitors this zoo gets every year come to see the pandas, like three-month-old Erin Morris Thompson dressed for the occasion.
SEAN MARZ, ZOO VISITOR: It's really great that she's going to get to grow up with them in her backyard.
TODD (on camera): Another measure of the sheer popularity of these animals. Zoo officials tell us that since the last set of pandas left here in late 2023, they had a 20% drop off in visitors to the zoo. With the arrival of these pandas, they say they expect to make up that deficit and add another 10% percent.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Today's story getting a 10 out of 10, is a fish-tuation cheered up by some friends. When a sunfish at an aquarium in Japan began to display some strange behavior, its caretakers thought it was ill, but it turns out there was a much simpler explanation. The fish was lonely.
Aquarium officials knew they had to group her together to figure out a solution. Take a look at how they found a way to keep the sunfish company.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When an aquarium in Japan temporarily closed for renovations in December, this sunfish stopped eating and started rubbing its body against the tank. The staff thought the fish had developed digestive issues or was infected by parasites, Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun reported, but it turns out the answer was much simpler. It was lonely.
The aquarium noted the animal's curious nature. It would swim up to the front of its tank whenever people came to visit. So the aquarium set up makeshift visitors by taping clothing and cutouts of faces to the tank. The aquarium says the sunfish was back in good health the very next day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Love a story with a fantastic ending.
It is shout out time now, and this shout out goes to the Tigers at Ashfield Middle School in Brockton, Massachusetts. We see you keep rising, keep shining, superstars.
Go out, make this Monday magnificent and marvelous. Even making just one person smile today could be your superpower. See you tomorrow, everyone.
I'm Coy Wire and we are CNN 10.
END
CNN 10
Four Israeli Hostages Reunited With Families as 200 Palestinian Prisoners Released; Rain Brings Relief and Risks. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired January 27, 2025 - 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, sunshine. It is Monday. Happy to start the week with you. I'm Coy Wire. This is CNN 10, where I tell you the what, letting you decide what to think. Let's kick this week off strong and get you your news.
We start in the Middle East. Four Israeli soldiers and hundreds of Palestinians are returning home after a second round of hostage releases were carried out this weekend, all part of a ceasefire deal signed this month. The four hostages freed Saturday had been held in Gaza since the Hamas attacks of October 7th, 2023. That day was the impetus of 15 months of conflict in Gaza.
Before their release, the four female soldiers were brought by Hamas on a stage in Gaza City, where they waved with smiles to the crowds. It was an emotional scene for Israelis watching a live feed from Hostages Square in Tel Aviv.
Israeli officials say the four soldiers are in good health and have been reunited with their families. Following their release, 200 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli detention centers were released in turn. Most of the freed Palestinians were transported to the occupied West Bank, but the Israeli prison service says 70 of the detainees are considered to be dangerous by Israel and are being deported outside of Israel and Palestinian territories.
Supporters gathered in the streets in the West Bank celebrating the prisoners release. Soon after the releases, Israel halted the return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza as planned in the deal, saying Hamas failed to release an Israeli female civilian. The ceasefire deal, which took months of painstaking negotiations, continues ahead on shaky ground between Israel and Hamas. Multiple stages still lie ahead before a permanent stop to fighting and rebuilding in Gaza can take place.
After weeks of dealing with the devastating, deadly wildfires, people in Southern California are now preparing for floods and mudslides as heavy rain now hits the fire-scorched area. At least five wildfires are still burning, including the Palisades and Eaton fires.
Our Julia Vargas Jones went along with emergency officials as they work to shore up areas at risk for heavy rains and the threat of mudslides.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAPTAIN GARRETT SAWTELLE, CALIFORNIA NATIONAL GUARD: We're in Altadena California and we're entering the Sierra Madre Villa debris basin.
JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The National Guard deployed to assist first responders just hours after the deadly fires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena began in the first week of January.
This unit part of the Guards Task Force 49 is charged with digging trenches at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California. A race against the rain to protect neighborhoods in and around the burn zone.
SAWTELLE: The fire basically causes it to be a lot more susceptible to erosion.
JONES: Oh wow. Oh, I see this now. So, this is where the water is going to flow.
SAWTELLE: Yes. So, the water will come through there.
JONES: Oh, that is deep.
JONES (voice-over): Their aim to divert water that could trigger dangerous mudslides once rain begins to fall.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have two means of loading. We have our excavators and then behind us we have our loader or front wheel loader.
JONES (voice-over): Crews digging pits into hillsides to create dams.
SAWTELLE: So, this portion will capture the sediment rocks vegetation, and then where it opens up the water would flow out.
JONES (voice-over): The whirr and buzz of bulldozers excavators and other heavy machinery a welcome cacophony to a community still reeling from fatal wildfires.
SAWTELLE: So, this was a part of the burn scar. So, the fire did come through here.
JONES (voice-over): Burn scars are among the most vulnerable areas for potential mudslides and even flash flooding.
This has been the driest start to the rainfall season in Southern California in over four decades. The ground is so dry that if the rain falls too fast, soil won't be able to absorb it.
Lieutenant Colonel James Smith is the commander of this operation.
LT. COL. JAMES SMITH, CALIFORNIA NATIONAL GUARD: If we do get significant rainfall, you're going to see a lot of that material behind us here. It's going to move down into this basin.
JONES (voice-over): His mission, he says, is to do whatever's necessary to avoid even further devastation.
SMITH: You can't imagine the tragedy they've all suffered through. We'll be here however long we need to be in order to help this community recover.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Ten-second trivia. What city is home to the oldest operating zoo in the world?
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, London, England, Berlin, Germany, or Vienna, Austria?
Your answer here is Vienna, Austria. The Schonbrunn Zoo there was established in 1752 and is still running today.
Now to Washington's Smithsonian National Zoo where pandemonium is in full effect. On Friday, the zoo debuted two new giant pandas from China, officially welcoming the fuzzy duo to their new home for the next decade. Bao Li and Qing Bao arrived in the U.S. in October but have been in quarantine adjusting to their new home since then.
CNN's Brian Todd got to bear witness to the events this weekend as the duo delighted the onlookers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A bamboo breakfast enjoyed by Bao Li, a giant panda frolicking in his new home. Bao, a three-year-old male and three-year-old female Qing Bao, making their public debut today at Washington's Smithsonian National Zoo.
Qing Bao is known for her tree climbing exploits. Zoo officials say. And we caught her doing her thing. And we saw her male counterpart pushing his oversize ball. Exciting and heartwarming moments for zoo-goers who've waited more than a year to see pandas again.
SARAH CHEW, ZOO VISITOR: It's very exciting that they're back at the zoo, and I'm just here to support them.
TODD: In November 2023, the National Zoo's previous set of pandas, Tian Tian and Mei Xiang, and their cub were sent back to China as a loan agreement expired. These new pandas will be in Washington for ten years, with the goal of getting them to breed. They won't start doing that for at least a couple more years.
In the meantime, Bao Li and Xing Bao, who are considered the equivalent of teenagers, now need to grow. That means a constant diet of bamboo. Lots of it.
MICHAEL BROWN-PALSGROVE, CURATOR OF PANDAS, SMITHSONIAN'S NATIONAL ZO: We offer over 100 pounds of bamboo to each panda every day. They're bringing truckloads, 500,600 pounds, three times a week back to us.
TODD (voice-over): The two pandas are kept in separate areas. Have had three months to acclimate to their habitat here. And zoo officials say they've developed distinct personalities.
BRANDIE SMITH, DIRECTOR, SMITHSONIAN'S NATIONAL ZOO: Qing Bao, these our female and she is, I'll say, a little more independent. She kind of likes to do her own thing. Bao Li definitely loves people. He loves his keepers. He talks to them all the time.
TODD (voice-over): They're part of a diplomatic and scientific cooperation with China that's been around for more than 50 years, since the first pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, arrived at the National Zoo in 1972, a conservation pact that's brought the pandas back from the endangered list.
SMITH: They are still in trouble, but it is a success story.
TODD: And a wildly popular story. Zoo officials tell us 95 percent of the 2 million visitors this zoo gets every year come to see the pandas, like three-month-old Erin Morris Thompson dressed for the occasion.
SEAN MARZ, ZOO VISITOR: It's really great that she's going to get to grow up with them in her backyard.
TODD (on camera): Another measure of the sheer popularity of these animals. Zoo officials tell us that since the last set of pandas left here in late 2023, they had a 20% drop off in visitors to the zoo. With the arrival of these pandas, they say they expect to make up that deficit and add another 10% percent.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Today's story getting a 10 out of 10, is a fish-tuation cheered up by some friends. When a sunfish at an aquarium in Japan began to display some strange behavior, its caretakers thought it was ill, but it turns out there was a much simpler explanation. The fish was lonely.
Aquarium officials knew they had to group her together to figure out a solution. Take a look at how they found a way to keep the sunfish company.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When an aquarium in Japan temporarily closed for renovations in December, this sunfish stopped eating and started rubbing its body against the tank. The staff thought the fish had developed digestive issues or was infected by parasites, Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun reported, but it turns out the answer was much simpler. It was lonely.
The aquarium noted the animal's curious nature. It would swim up to the front of its tank whenever people came to visit. So the aquarium set up makeshift visitors by taping clothing and cutouts of faces to the tank. The aquarium says the sunfish was back in good health the very next day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Love a story with a fantastic ending.
It is shout out time now, and this shout out goes to the Tigers at Ashfield Middle School in Brockton, Massachusetts. We see you keep rising, keep shining, superstars.
Go out, make this Monday magnificent and marvelous. Even making just one person smile today could be your superpower. See you tomorrow, everyone.
I'm Coy Wire and we are CNN 10.
END