CNN10 2024-08-27




CNN 10

Flash Flooding in the Grand Canyon; Wildlife Team in South Africa, Helping Endangered Seals Escape the Perils of Plastic Pollution. Aired 4- 4:10a ET

Aired August 27, 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: What's up, sunshine? Rise up. I'm Coy Wire. This is CNN 10, the best 10 minutes in news because of you. Got to meet some of you this weekend. All my new friends at Youth Villages-Inner Harbour in Douglasville, Georgia. I see you, Mr. Wilbur, Mr. Blue.

All right, let's get you your headlines. Starting in Grand Canyon National Park, where flash flooding prompted the rescues of more than 100 people.

Monsoon storms turned waterways into raging rivers of dangerous debris, endangering hikers, tourists and tribes in the area. Search and rescue operations began after local authorities shut down the area to tourists. Arizona's National Guard used a Black Hawk helicopter to evacuate 104 tourists and tribal members from a canyon on the lands of the Havasupai tribe.

Sadly, the body of a missing hiker was recovered along the Colorado River over the weekend. The Park Service and the Coconino County Medical Examiner are conducting investigation. CNN meteorologists say no rain is in the forecast in the area in the coming days.

And you may have spotted in a city near you, security robots that are patrolling communities and buildings from New York to Hawaii. These oblong bots are using a suite of sensors to help out human security guards in their duties. Experts and manufacturers say their strength lies in their advanced technologies working alongside security officials.

But they've also sparked concerns about privacy issues and potential job losses for humans in the security field. Critics are also raising questions about their effectiveness in keeping the public safe. Right now, there is a lack of public data to prove just how effective these robots are, so we'll still have yet to see whether they can be a reliable security solution.

Next, in Princeton, New Jersey, a high school reunion unlike any other. A group of former students, athletes and coaches from Princeton High School have been rallying together over the last 16 months. That's how long their former classmate, Evan Gershkovich, was wrongfully detained in Russia.

The 32-year-old "Wall Street Journal" reporter was convicted of espionage there in a sham trial and sentenced to 16 years in a harsh penal colony.

Despite the circumstances, Gershkovich's family, colleagues and community and former classmates back at home kept hope alive. For 491 days, they all kept his story in the public consciousness, and on August 1st, their efforts paid off.

Gershkovich was among 24 detainees released as part of a complex prisoner swap between Russia, the U.S. and other Western nations. Here's how they kept the fight for his release and are now finally welcoming him home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, well, it's Evan's former high school soccer coaches, some of his former teammates who gathered here, and they're all breathing a sigh of relief to learn that Evan is finally home.

You see, this is the community that saw Evan grow up. He went to Princeton High School where he played soccer, won the state championship when he was a senior. So this is a community of people that have watched him grow up, followed his career, and when they found out that he had been taken into custody and put into a Russian prison, they jumped right into action.

They tried to figure out what they could do as a community to support him. They partnered with the "Wall Street Journal" and held a series of events to keep Evan's name and his story in people's minds. They worried that as time went on that somehow people would forget about Evan's story. So they've been holding these types of events.

In fact, the event that was held here was originally scheduled to be another one of these awareness type of events. But when they learned the good news on August 1st that Evan was coming home, they quickly pivoted and changed this into a welcoming party. They have gathered here, the same place where they gathered as young students. This is where they gather to celebrate their victories. They say they want to welcome him home and celebrate that he's finally free.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Pop quiz, hot shot. Which African nation has not one but three capital cities?

Zimbabwe, South Africa, Tanzania, or Algeria?

South Africa has an executive, legislative and judicial capital in Pretoria, Cape Town and Bloemfontein, respectively.

South Africa's biodiversity is unmatched. It's known for being home to the largest land mammals, the African elephant and rhinos, and it's also home to marine life like great white sharks, penguins and fur seals.

Wildlife teams in Cape Town have come up with a clever way to protect the endangered seals from challenges they face from their contact with humans and plastic waste, all while showing them off to visitors.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): It's an early and quiet morning at one of South Africa's most visited tourist destinations, Cape Town's iconic V&A Waterfront, which attracts around 24 million people annually. Situated in the oldest working harbor in the Southern Hemisphere, it's also a welcoming host to an entirely different breed of mammal.

MARTINE VILJOEN, MARINE WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME, TWO OCEANS AQUARIUM FOUNDATION: Over the past 20 years, we've had a population of wild Cape fur seals making use of our harbor as acting as an extension of our oceans. And to them, I really think they believe this to be their home. It's a stop of point or a safe space. They're not habituated, but they move in and out as they please.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Aside from playing the part of waterfront attraction, they also play a vital role within the marine ecosystem.

VILJOEN: They help balance everything out from being a prey source to being a predator themselves. They indicate how the health of the ocean is doing and they give us a valuable insight how the bigger picture of our ocean health.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Once heavily hunted, Cape fur seals are now a protected species in South Africa, and it's estimated that around 2 million inhabit the coasts of Southern Africa.

Still, they face significant challenges with climate change, human-wildlife conflict, and more recently rabies, all areas of concern. Here on the waterfront, a team from the nearby Two Oceans Aquarium looks after them.

GRETT GLASBY, MARINE WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME, TWO OCEANS AQUARIUM FOUNDATION: The program that we run here, the Marine Wildlife Management Program, is unique. It's the first of its kind in the world, where we are essentially reducing conflict between humans and animals within the space of a working harbor/tourist destination. We are the buffer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But one of the most widespread and tangible threats facing these curious creatures is plastic pollution.

GLASBY: We are out here on our second patrol of the day, looking for any seals that have plastic around their neck in the hope that we can actually get them disentangled this morning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Removing the plastic items, which is most often commercial fishing debris, can be a challenge so they have to get creative.

GLASBY: So we gave them the dedicated seal platform you're going to see behind me there with all the seals resting on it. The added benefit to the seal platform is that we've made the gaps between the wood and slats very wide and for a very specific reason.

We have around 100 seals a year that come into the waterfront with plastic entanglements just like these around their necks. But if they come and rest on our platform here with the wide slats, we get to climb into wetsuits, swim below them and disentangle them. And we use a very special tool for that.

This is our cutter and it is a hooked blade on the inside, very thin to fit through the wooden slats. And the idea is that we'll swim in a wetsuit underneath the platform. We poke this through the slats, hook it onto the entanglement and give it a really good tug. And that'll snap it off the seal's neck.

From the seals' point of view, he's resting in the sun. He'll feel a tug on his neck. He'll stand up, he'll bark at the seal next to him and lie down again. He doesn't even know there was a human involved in removing this plastic off his neck.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brett Glasby says in 2023, they disentangled 124 seals at the V&A waterfront alone, a statistic that is increasing year after year.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: Today's story getting a 10 out of 10, it's a home run, baby. In a real-life sandlot in Kansas, complete with a dog on the other side of the fence, a group of neighborhood kids got the surprise of their lives when an MLB star asked if he could join their wiffle ball game.

Kansas City Royals catcher Salvador Perez played a couple of innings with these young sluggers and he even hit a home run. Absolutely epic.

All right, superstars, today's shout out goes to Union Colony Preparatory School in Greeley, Colorado. Let them hear you howl, Timberwolves. We're keeping it moving this week and making it one to be proud of. There are going to be hurdles on your way to the finish line, but no matter what it is, just keep going.

See you tomorrow, everyone. I'm Coy Wire and we are CNN 10.

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