CNN10 2025-01-30
CNN 10
Violence Erupts in Mineral-Rich DR Congo as Rebels Move Into Key City; Mona Lisa Gets Her Own Room; Got a Stuffy Nose? Expert Explains Why. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired January 30, 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 everyone. Happy Friday Eve. It is Thursday, January 30th. Welcome to CNN 10, the best 10 minutes of news, quick, sometimes quirky, but always straight to the point. Lots of news on deck, so let's get to it.
We start today in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the largest city of the country's mineral-rich eastern region, Goma, has fallen into the control of rebel groups.
The rebel coalition, including the M23 armed group, has made territorial gains in recent weeks across large areas of eastern DRC, where rare minerals needed to make phones and computers are mined.
Government troops backed by neighboring countries and U.N. or United Nations intervention forces have struggled to maintain control. More than a dozen foreign peacekeepers, as well as the military governor of North Kivu province, have been killed trying to fend off the rebels.
The Congolese government has not yet confirmed the rebels' takeover of Goma, but did acknowledge their presence there. The fighting has taken a large human toll. Aid agencies say that hospitals are overwhelmed and the World Food Program has paused food assistance.
Protests in the capital, Kinshasa, have become violent, and the Red Cross is warning it could lead to the spread of viruses like Ebola if laboratories with samples aren't protected. The escalating unrest is worsening a long-running humanitarian crisis in the region. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Civilians hurry towards Goma with everything they can carry on their backs. The fighting between the M23 rebel group and the Army of the Democratic Republic of Congo hot on their heels as panicked residents flee outlying areas to seek shelter.
The U.N. says the encroaching violence has already displaced some 400,000 people in the region since the beginning of the year. And there are fears as the clashes continue, there'll be many more.
For decades, the eastern part of the DRC has been infiltrated by militias and armed groups, many stemming from Rwanda's 1994 genocide and lingering hostilities between Hutu and Tutsi groups.
Aid agencies say many people in this area have been displaced before by ongoing conflicts, and with the pitched fighting uprooting them once again, the humanitarian crisis in the DRC can only get worse for those surrounded by fighting with no place left to go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Over the weekend, the DRC cut diplomatic ties and recalled its diplomatic staff with neighboring Rwanda, accusing it of helping the rebels. U.N. experts believe that an estimated 3,000 Rwandan soldiers work alongside M23 fighters in eastern DRC. The roots of this long-running conflict date back centuries to European colonization, which pitted ethnic groups against each other, seeding generations of ethnic tensions, political rivalries, and fighting for control of valuable natural resources.
All of these factors are still top of mind for eastern African leaders convening an emergency meeting to find solutions to the crisis. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz explains how the world's need for smartphones may be fueling the ongoing conflict in the region.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is how your phone could be fueling a conflict in Central Africa. A rebel group called M23 claims it is now in control of Goma, a city in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. For weeks, the militia has been advancing on the city. Thousands of panicked families have been forced to flee the fighting, and at least a dozen U.N. peacekeepers and foreign soldiers are dead.
And today, in the capital Kinshasa, fires were set around western embassies, including the American one, by protesters angry at what they see as intervention in Africa's affairs. So why is all this happening?
Well, M23 is a militia accused of mass atrocities, and it is backed and funded by neighboring Rwanda. That's according to the United Nations, although Rwanda denies this. So why is Rwanda involved? Again, the answer may lie in your phone.
The eastern DRC, where Goma is located, is rich in precious minerals used to build electronics. One of those minerals is coltan. And last year alone,
Rwanda imported at least 150 metric tons of it by facilitating illegal mining through the M23 rebels in the DRC. Again, that's according to the United Nations.
Now Rwanda denies these accusations, but rights groups fear that M23 will expand its criminal enterprise into what some have called blood phones, putting the lives of millions caught in the chaos at risk.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Pop quiz hotshot. In the art world, a list of facts about a work of art is known as?
Impression, iconography, provenance, or appropriation.
Your answer is provenance, which can include facts like the artist's name, date of creation, medium to help establish the work's value, authenticity, and cultural significance.
Here's an art fact that might not be so surprising. One of the most iconic paintings in the world, the Mona Lisa, is the most visited work of art in the world. And now it's getting its very own space within the Louvre Museum in Paris.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced the upgrade for Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece this week as part of a major renovation for the French Museum. The updates come not a moment too soon. The last big renovation of the Louvre in the 1980s was designed to welcome 4 million visitors a year.
Last year, the Louvre clocked in 8.7 million visitors, the majority coming from countries outside of France who traveled far and wide, many fixed on seeing Mona Lisa's subtle smile. The Mona Lisa has long been shown behind protective glass in the museum's largest room, which is usually overcrowded with long lines of visitors, often blocking other notable paintings in that room. Its new dedicated room will be accessible with a special ticket to help ease the crowds.
It is that time of year known to many as germ season, when colds and flus just love to run rampant. And many of us have already noticed maybe the sounds of stuffy noses and sneezing all around us. Well, today we're going to take a look at why our bodies produce all that nasty and annoying mucus and snot.
It turns out our bodies are actually trying to help us when we're sick. CNN's Meg Tirrell explains with a little TMI what our immune systems are actually up to when we're sick. And if you're wondering if this report is going to be completely disgusting, don't worry. It's snot.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Got a stuffy nose? Here's what's going on up there. It's not just an annoying thing your body does when you're sick. All that snot is actually a sign your immune system is working.
DR. STEPHANIE JAMES, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, REGIS UNIVERSITY: If you want to hear something really gross, I mean, we produce one to two quarts of mucus a day and usually we just swallow it and we never know it.
TIRRELL (voice-over): Super gross. But Dr. Stephanie James, who studies how cells respond to viruses, points out mucus is always there, part of our immune system, trapping invaders like viruses and bacteria.
JAMES: And then we swallow it where the enzymes in our stomach basically can destroy it and we can get rid of it.
TIRRELL (voice-over): But when one of those invaders starts to cause an infection in and around our nose, our cells there release these chemical messengers.
JAMES: What they're trying to do also is recruit immune cells to the site of this infection.
TIRRELL (voice-over): And that can cause things called goblet cells to release even more mucus. Plus, they also tell the blood vessels up there to become leaky.
JAMES: So some of the watery secretions that are actually in our blood vessels can then get into that nasal cavity. They also become swollen.
TIRRELL (voice-over): All of that can make you feel like you have a stuffy nose.
Oh, and by the way, the color of your snot, well if it's yellow or green, that may be because of a buildup of immune cells and other things to fight an infection. But scientists say the color can't tell you whether it's a virus or bacteria that's making you sick.
And while all of this is annoying, just remember the next time you're reaching for the tissues, you're also seeing your immune system at work.
And that's everyday science.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Today's store getting a 10 out of 10 is a genuinely expensive pair of pants. Did you know the birth date of blue jeans is widely accepted to be way back in the year 1873, when Davis and Levi Strauss patented the term? Well, an historic pair of jeans dating back to around that time fetched a whopping dollar amount at auction in New Mexico. Redefining what it means to splurge on a pant-astic pair of denim, our Jeremy Roth unzips the details on what made this pair so special.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY ROTH, CNN DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCER AND WRITER (voiceover): A pair of Dusty Levi's jeans made headlines when they nabbed 76 grand at auction. The jeans were reportedly found in an old mineshaft in New Mexico and are believed to be from the 1880s. The very old school duds sparked a bidding war as soon as the listing went live, but in the end it was a pair of vintage clothing dealers from San Francisco that nabbed the grubby Goldrush garb for a cool 76 grand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sold for $76,000! (END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: All right, we have a shout out today for a place rich with granite and marble quarrying history. Poultney, Vermont, Poultney High School, you rock. Thank you for making us part of your day.
And to all of my friends at Jackson Middle School in Champlin, Minnesota. My goodness. Mrs. Brand, Micah, Damon, Greta, Johnny, and Josh. You get a 10 out of 10 for this that's going in my office.
Mrs. Biegler, also, I want to wish you a happy retirement after 44 years of teaching. Rise up. See you right back here tomorrow on CNN 10.
I'm Coy Wire. Have an awesome one.
END
CNN 10
Violence Erupts in Mineral-Rich DR Congo as Rebels Move Into Key City; Mona Lisa Gets Her Own Room; Got a Stuffy Nose? Expert Explains Why. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired January 30, 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 everyone. Happy Friday Eve. It is Thursday, January 30th. Welcome to CNN 10, the best 10 minutes of news, quick, sometimes quirky, but always straight to the point. Lots of news on deck, so let's get to it.
We start today in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the largest city of the country's mineral-rich eastern region, Goma, has fallen into the control of rebel groups.
The rebel coalition, including the M23 armed group, has made territorial gains in recent weeks across large areas of eastern DRC, where rare minerals needed to make phones and computers are mined.
Government troops backed by neighboring countries and U.N. or United Nations intervention forces have struggled to maintain control. More than a dozen foreign peacekeepers, as well as the military governor of North Kivu province, have been killed trying to fend off the rebels.
The Congolese government has not yet confirmed the rebels' takeover of Goma, but did acknowledge their presence there. The fighting has taken a large human toll. Aid agencies say that hospitals are overwhelmed and the World Food Program has paused food assistance.
Protests in the capital, Kinshasa, have become violent, and the Red Cross is warning it could lead to the spread of viruses like Ebola if laboratories with samples aren't protected. The escalating unrest is worsening a long-running humanitarian crisis in the region. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Civilians hurry towards Goma with everything they can carry on their backs. The fighting between the M23 rebel group and the Army of the Democratic Republic of Congo hot on their heels as panicked residents flee outlying areas to seek shelter.
The U.N. says the encroaching violence has already displaced some 400,000 people in the region since the beginning of the year. And there are fears as the clashes continue, there'll be many more.
For decades, the eastern part of the DRC has been infiltrated by militias and armed groups, many stemming from Rwanda's 1994 genocide and lingering hostilities between Hutu and Tutsi groups.
Aid agencies say many people in this area have been displaced before by ongoing conflicts, and with the pitched fighting uprooting them once again, the humanitarian crisis in the DRC can only get worse for those surrounded by fighting with no place left to go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Over the weekend, the DRC cut diplomatic ties and recalled its diplomatic staff with neighboring Rwanda, accusing it of helping the rebels. U.N. experts believe that an estimated 3,000 Rwandan soldiers work alongside M23 fighters in eastern DRC. The roots of this long-running conflict date back centuries to European colonization, which pitted ethnic groups against each other, seeding generations of ethnic tensions, political rivalries, and fighting for control of valuable natural resources.
All of these factors are still top of mind for eastern African leaders convening an emergency meeting to find solutions to the crisis. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz explains how the world's need for smartphones may be fueling the ongoing conflict in the region.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is how your phone could be fueling a conflict in Central Africa. A rebel group called M23 claims it is now in control of Goma, a city in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. For weeks, the militia has been advancing on the city. Thousands of panicked families have been forced to flee the fighting, and at least a dozen U.N. peacekeepers and foreign soldiers are dead.
And today, in the capital Kinshasa, fires were set around western embassies, including the American one, by protesters angry at what they see as intervention in Africa's affairs. So why is all this happening?
Well, M23 is a militia accused of mass atrocities, and it is backed and funded by neighboring Rwanda. That's according to the United Nations, although Rwanda denies this. So why is Rwanda involved? Again, the answer may lie in your phone.
The eastern DRC, where Goma is located, is rich in precious minerals used to build electronics. One of those minerals is coltan. And last year alone,
Rwanda imported at least 150 metric tons of it by facilitating illegal mining through the M23 rebels in the DRC. Again, that's according to the United Nations.
Now Rwanda denies these accusations, but rights groups fear that M23 will expand its criminal enterprise into what some have called blood phones, putting the lives of millions caught in the chaos at risk.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Pop quiz hotshot. In the art world, a list of facts about a work of art is known as?
Impression, iconography, provenance, or appropriation.
Your answer is provenance, which can include facts like the artist's name, date of creation, medium to help establish the work's value, authenticity, and cultural significance.
Here's an art fact that might not be so surprising. One of the most iconic paintings in the world, the Mona Lisa, is the most visited work of art in the world. And now it's getting its very own space within the Louvre Museum in Paris.
French President Emmanuel Macron announced the upgrade for Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece this week as part of a major renovation for the French Museum. The updates come not a moment too soon. The last big renovation of the Louvre in the 1980s was designed to welcome 4 million visitors a year.
Last year, the Louvre clocked in 8.7 million visitors, the majority coming from countries outside of France who traveled far and wide, many fixed on seeing Mona Lisa's subtle smile. The Mona Lisa has long been shown behind protective glass in the museum's largest room, which is usually overcrowded with long lines of visitors, often blocking other notable paintings in that room. Its new dedicated room will be accessible with a special ticket to help ease the crowds.
It is that time of year known to many as germ season, when colds and flus just love to run rampant. And many of us have already noticed maybe the sounds of stuffy noses and sneezing all around us. Well, today we're going to take a look at why our bodies produce all that nasty and annoying mucus and snot.
It turns out our bodies are actually trying to help us when we're sick. CNN's Meg Tirrell explains with a little TMI what our immune systems are actually up to when we're sick. And if you're wondering if this report is going to be completely disgusting, don't worry. It's snot.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Got a stuffy nose? Here's what's going on up there. It's not just an annoying thing your body does when you're sick. All that snot is actually a sign your immune system is working.
DR. STEPHANIE JAMES, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, REGIS UNIVERSITY: If you want to hear something really gross, I mean, we produce one to two quarts of mucus a day and usually we just swallow it and we never know it.
TIRRELL (voice-over): Super gross. But Dr. Stephanie James, who studies how cells respond to viruses, points out mucus is always there, part of our immune system, trapping invaders like viruses and bacteria.
JAMES: And then we swallow it where the enzymes in our stomach basically can destroy it and we can get rid of it.
TIRRELL (voice-over): But when one of those invaders starts to cause an infection in and around our nose, our cells there release these chemical messengers.
JAMES: What they're trying to do also is recruit immune cells to the site of this infection.
TIRRELL (voice-over): And that can cause things called goblet cells to release even more mucus. Plus, they also tell the blood vessels up there to become leaky.
JAMES: So some of the watery secretions that are actually in our blood vessels can then get into that nasal cavity. They also become swollen.
TIRRELL (voice-over): All of that can make you feel like you have a stuffy nose.
Oh, and by the way, the color of your snot, well if it's yellow or green, that may be because of a buildup of immune cells and other things to fight an infection. But scientists say the color can't tell you whether it's a virus or bacteria that's making you sick.
And while all of this is annoying, just remember the next time you're reaching for the tissues, you're also seeing your immune system at work.
And that's everyday science.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Today's store getting a 10 out of 10 is a genuinely expensive pair of pants. Did you know the birth date of blue jeans is widely accepted to be way back in the year 1873, when Davis and Levi Strauss patented the term? Well, an historic pair of jeans dating back to around that time fetched a whopping dollar amount at auction in New Mexico. Redefining what it means to splurge on a pant-astic pair of denim, our Jeremy Roth unzips the details on what made this pair so special.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY ROTH, CNN DIGITAL VIDEO PRODUCER AND WRITER (voiceover): A pair of Dusty Levi's jeans made headlines when they nabbed 76 grand at auction. The jeans were reportedly found in an old mineshaft in New Mexico and are believed to be from the 1880s. The very old school duds sparked a bidding war as soon as the listing went live, but in the end it was a pair of vintage clothing dealers from San Francisco that nabbed the grubby Goldrush garb for a cool 76 grand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sold for $76,000! (END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: All right, we have a shout out today for a place rich with granite and marble quarrying history. Poultney, Vermont, Poultney High School, you rock. Thank you for making us part of your day.
And to all of my friends at Jackson Middle School in Champlin, Minnesota. My goodness. Mrs. Brand, Micah, Damon, Greta, Johnny, and Josh. You get a 10 out of 10 for this that's going in my office.
Mrs. Biegler, also, I want to wish you a happy retirement after 44 years of teaching. Rise up. See you right back here tomorrow on CNN 10.
I'm Coy Wire. Have an awesome one.
END