CNN10 2024-09-13




CNN 10

Brazil Faces Its Worst Drought as Wildfires Rage and Amazon River Falls to Record Low; SpaceX Mission Making History in Earth's Orbit; Explaining A New Dynamic Kickoff. Aired 4-4:10a ET

Aired September 13, 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 and welcome to CNN 10. I'm Coy Wire. It's Friday, best day of the week. The weekend is upon us, but let's lock in, get a little smarter and wiser and have a little fun while we finish this week strong.

We start in the Amazon where Brazil is experiencing its worst drought on record. It's so severe that these folks here are walking on what should have been a river. This major tributary of the Amazon, the Madeira River, is experiencing historically low water levels. The drying waterways in the mighty Amazon have left boats stranded, cutting off food and water supplies to communities who rely on the river to survive.

The drought could also impact soy and corn shipments, driving up prices for everyone. The water crisis is expected to worsen as the water levels are forecast to keep dropping. The climate phenomenon, La Nina, usually brings wetter weather to Brazil, but the weather pattern is coming later than forecast this year.

With rain not expected for weeks or months, the record drought is upending the lives of hundreds of thousands of people while it damages the jungle ecosystem.

And incredible feet high above the earth, a four-person civilian crew completed the world's first commercial spacewalk. All of the crew members were exposed to the vacuum of space, but two remained inside the vehicle while billionaire tech CEO Jared Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis exited the capsule. Check out the beautiful view.

While spacewalks have been carried out by NASA since the 1960s, the Polaris Dawn private SpaceX mission took a major step forward for commercializing these capabilities, aiming to make spacewalks a task that can be carried out by private companies, not just government astronauts.

With the spacewalk complete, the crew will spend another couple days in orbit checking off other mission goals and conducting a bunch of experiments. But that spacewalk took up lots of the life support oxygen they had on board, and they have a limited amount of time left before the spacewalk has to return home, most likely over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS HADFIELD, RETIRED ASTRONAUT: I was really holding my breath at two different moments. One was as the pressure was dropping in the cabin.

That's the first time they've ever let all the air out of one of these SpaceX ships and see if everything still works.

You know, imagine if in your studio, if suddenly there was zero air pressure, would all the computers keep working? How would everything function? So that was a big step.

But the second one was when Jared reached up, and I know if you watch it or not, I was jiggling, and opened that hatch. Because if that hatch doesn't close again properly, then there's no way to get air back into the cabin. They'd have to do an emergency de-orbit back to Earth with everybody still in their big pressurized suits.

So I was, you know, amongst everything else, I was really pleased to see both those things work perfectly, have the crew safely back inside. And maybe most importantly, we have now a proven new spacewalking suit. It's been a long time since we've had a new one. That's great for the world.

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WIRE: Ten second trivia. Between 1974 and 2011, the NFL moved the kickoff line three times. Which NFL committee voted on the changes?

Rules Committee, Competition Committee, Executive Committee, or Medical Committee?

Ding, ding, ding, Competition Committee is your answer here. It reviews the competitive aspects of the game, including rules.

Football is back, and there's a whole new look in the NFL this year regarding the kickoff. I played nine years in the NFL. Let me tell you, kickoff was one of the most violent plays.

I have a titanium plate and four screws on my neck to prove it. But the new dynamic kickoff in the NFL is aimed at making the game safer by having players line up just five yards apart. And the NFL isn't the only league making changes to kickoff rules in hopes of making the game safer.

Our Sanjay Gupta has more, including one school that made a drastic change to that phase of the game.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. ALLEN SILLS, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, NFL: It's space and speed. So if you think about where we're standing here, you've got players that are lined up, in this case, maybe 50, 60 yards away from where we are. They're running down the field as fast as they can possibly run. So coming down the field at speed and then having collisions obviously is a driver for injury.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The NFL says last season concussions occurred four times more often on a kickoff than any other play. It's exactly why Riverdale Country School in the Bronx wants to change the game.

JOHN PIZZI, DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS, RIVERDALE COUNTRY SCHOOL: I sort of jokingly said to him, like, I want to change football in America. Like, we need to figure this out.

GUPTA (on camera): Want to change football in America. It's pretty audacious.

PIZZI: Yeah, I don't know if I actually realized what I was saying at the time.

GUPTA: John Pizzi is the school's athletic director.

PIZZI: Yeah, so in 2018, we had 18 players left for the last game of our season. We had a bunch of concussions and a bunch of season-ending injuries. So we made a decision to cancel our last game. But when that season ended, we had to figure out how we were going to manage the next football season.

GUPTA (voice-over): So together with the Concussion Legacy Foundation, they proposed something pretty radical. Getting rid of the sport's most iconic play. No more kickoffs. No more returns. The beginning of their games now look like this. Play just starts at the 35-yard line.

And so far, Pizzi says they've seen a 33% decrease in concussions across the league. And importantly, an 18% increase in participation. Parents certainly like the idea. And it turns out, so do the players, like team captain Tristan Cornell.

TRISTAN CORNELL, STUDENT ATHLETE, RIVERDALE: I've talked to people when I tell them that my school doesn't do kickoffs. They're like, oh my gosh, that's one of the biggest parts of the game. How can you not do that? But then I see all these injuries that happen from kickoffs. So the fact that we don't have that probably allows us to keep healthy and play throughout the entire season.

GUPTA: But the NFL's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Allen Sills, says the league is not yet ready to give up on the kickoff altogether.

SILLS: All options are on the table. I mean, I think that certainly eliminating the play is one of those options, but I believe there are potentially other solutions. And I think that's our challenge, is can we understand what's driving injury and again, preserve the elements of the game.

GUPTA: So this year in the NFL, you're going to see a very different sort of kickoff, what they're calling a dynamic kickoff.

Now again, previously, as soon as the ball was kicked, all 11 members of the kicking team would start sprinting down the field to try and tackle the receiving team. Lots of speed, lots of space.

This season, only the kicker is back here, while the opposing teams are lined up all the way over here, separated by just five yards. And none of those players can move until the ball has been caught by the receiving team or it hits the ground. It reduces the speed and the space of the play. It's what Competition Committee Co-Chairman Rich McKay says is one of the biggest rule changes in 30 years.

RICH MCKAY, COMPETITION COMMITTEE CO-CHAIRMAN: The problem is, is we're trying to not just make this game better next year. We're trying to keep the game going for 10, 20, 30, 40. That's what our legacy is supposed to be. And so you've got to look at health and safety and make sure that the numbers, when they tell you something, you do something.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WIRE: Today's story getting a 10 out of 10. How about some digital drip, stretching, bending, folding technology that can make your clothes be like a chameleon. The company LG and Korean designers debuted these innovative customizable display panels on the runways at South Korean Fashion Week.

The amazing new tech is still in the concept phase, but as engineers work to make it more durable and resilient to everyday wear, we could one day be seeing these panels on everything from hats to handbags, maybe even car interiors, or customizable moving tattoos.

Is this rizz, or is this just wrong? If I could rock that tech today, I'd probably wear something that said, yo Thunderbolts, Thunder Ridge Middle in Aurora, Colorado, we see you.

Thank you for subscribing and commenting on our CNN 10 YouTube channel. Hope y'all feel proud of the work we put in this week. Cue that Friday music, now there.

Let's take good vibes, lots of love into the week, and remember what's within influences what happens without. You are more powerful than you know. I'm Coy Wire. This is CNN 10.

It's been a blessing to spend this week with you.

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