[Music]
Hello. Hey, and how you doing sunshine?
Welcome to CNN 10, your 10 minutes of
news, where we give you the fundamentals
and bring some fun for the mentals. I'm
Koi Wire. It's August 6th, and it's your
word Wednesday. So, listen to see if the
vocabulary word you submitted helped us
write today's show. We begin in
California where a new fire, the Gford
fire, is rapidly growing. It's already
consumed more than 72,000 acres,
including parts of Los Padres's National
Park. That makes it the state's largest
fire this year. And currently, just a
small percentage is contained. So far,
three people have been injured and
evacuation orders are in effect for two
counties. Nearly 2,000 firefighters are
battling the blaze as they try to save
more than 870 structures currently
threatened by the fire. The smoke has
reached as far as Las Vegas, I'm
understanding. But they're not the only
ones dealing with bad air quality. For
more of the what, the why, and what's
next, let's track down our
meteorologist, Derek Van Damp. Good to
see you, Derek.
Wire, my man.
Let's start in California. This Gford
fire, give us some perspective how big
it is. Okay. So, you're a football guy
clearly, right? So, I'll put it into a
football perspective for you. There was
a period there where the fire, the Gford
fire was actually expanding at a rate of
a football field every 2 seconds.
So, yeah, every two seconds. So, it was
explosive growth over the course of the
weekend. You can see it right here with
the satellite as well. So, we're looking
down from space. There's the Gford fire
and it's all because of the drought
that's ongoing across Southern
California. Increased temperatures. Uh
we've got low relative humidities. A lot
of science terms. I'm throwing at you.
But this is important because these are
all the factors that go into play with
this type of a wildfire activity. It's
also contributing to really unhealthy
air across Southern California. So if
you're in SoCal right now, it's almost
suffocating outside, a thick hazy smoke
over the skies. And guess what, Coy?
This is crazy. 400 miles away in Las
Vegas, they're actually breathing in
some of the smoke from the Gford fire,
which is 400 miles to the west. Yes. And
unhealthy air quality even in Vegas. Now
I understand there are wildfires in
Canada affecting US cities as well.
This is crazy. So talk about fires and
people being displaced from fires
several thousand miles away. This is New
York City. Uh and and this area has been
suffocated by wildfire smoke as well.
That thick hazy sky overhead. Buffalo,
New York. You used to play for the
Bills, you know, right? Have you ever
experienced the thick hazy skies in some
of your training?
I don't remember this.
Okay. So, I don't know how long ago you
played for them, but this is really a
relatively new phenomenon. We call it
the summer of smoke, and they're
experiencing it across New England, the
Great Lakes, and it's all because of the
wildfires that are burning out of
control across northern Canada. So,
Alberta, Saskatchewan, you can see
there's nearly 200 out of control
wildfires contributing to the bad air
quality that we're all breathing in
across the Northeast and some of these
major East Coast cities. Best quick tip
for our viewers very quickly of if
they're in or near these cities, how to
check for the air quality.
Yeah. No, I Well, you could check
online. Otherwise, you can just hit that
recirculate button on your air
conditioner inside of your car because
that'll help keep you breathing in
cleaner air as well.
All right, speaking of cities, any shout
outs you want to give to your former
school?
Oh my goodness. Okay, my high school,
Rockford High School. Go Rams and fire
up Chips. Central Michigan University.
Can't forget about you. Let's go. We'll
have more shout outs at the end of the
show, but first pop quiz hot shot. Japan
is composed of approximately how many
islands? 50, 700, 5,000, or 14,000?
Japan is composed of 14,125
islands. In 2023, the nation discovered
7,000 of them through new digital
mapping. That meant counting all
naturally occurring land areas with a
circumference of at least 330 ft. Today
marks a somber milestone for a moment
that changed the world forever. Exactly
80 years ago today, August 6th, 1945, an
atomic bomb was used for the first time
in warfare. The US dropped an atomic
bomb on the port city of Hiroshima,
Japan. 70,000 people were instantly
killed. The world will note that the
first atomic bomb was dropped on
Hiroshima.
Just days later, a second atomic bomb
was dropped on the city of Nagasaki,
killing an additional 40,000 plus. The
bombings led Japan to unconditionally
surrender, officially ending World War
II. But they also ushered in the Cold
War, another devastating chapter in
world history. To this day, it remains
the only time a country has ever used an
atomic bomb in war. Overall estimates
put the death toll in Hiroshima alone at
more than 200,000 people, including
deaths from radiation poisoning or
long-term effects like cancer. Today,
Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park stands at
top the bustling commercial district,
serving as a tribute to the victims in a
stark reminder of the most destructive
force ever created by mankind. Next up,
a story that sounds like it's straight
out of a spy thriller, part of a new CNN
investigation. LinkedIn, the popular job
site that has more than a billion users
worldwide, features covert operatives,
fake identities, and even face masking
technology. It serves as a good reminder
that not everything we see online is
always what it seems.
My contract ended last week, so I'm
currently looking for a new opportunity.
Hundreds of North Korean operative have
been using fake identities to seek
remote IT jobs at American companies in
a state sponsored effort to make money
for the North Korean regime and fund its
military programs.
I try to listen to everyone's idea and
provide assistance when needed.
The DOJ has said that over the past
couple of years, the North Koreans have
quietly made their way into Fortune 500
companies, potentially putting US
national security at risk. It's now
gotten to the point where some experts
say that it's hard to find a major
company that the North Koreans have not
targeted.
CNN spoke with leading experts from
cyber security firms and reviewed dozens
of open- source data sets from North
Korean computers to understand how the
North Korean IT workers operate.
Now, let's take a look at some of these
LinkedIn profiles. This is Joe Paul.
He's a suspected North Korean IT worker.
And looking at his profile, right away
there are a couple of things that
immediately set us off. the generic
western name, the cheesy cover photo,
previous work experience at Walmart or
at the National University of Singapore.
These are all common experiences that
the North Koreans claim to have had.
When we run this profile photo through
AI detection software, it quickly came
up as AI generated. In some cases, the
whole photo isn't AI generated, but the
face has been swapped for a new one. The
original looks like this. And here's the
edited version with a new face
superimposed on it. Experts have matched
this exact profile to data sets that
they believe originate from the
computers of North Korean operatives.
These data sets include everything from
their online search histories to the
applications that they've downloaded,
giving us very insight into how the
North Koreans pull off this scheme.
Right away, there are a couple of hints
that might not be the Spanish developer
that he claims to be.
AstroVPN is a popular VPN service in
China where the North Koreans often base
themselves. And we also see him
downloading remote working software that
allows the North Koreans to remotely
access their work computers which are
hosted by facilitators in the US. Next,
we see him looking up dozens of job
postings. And his calendar appears to be
packed with job interview invites from
companies all around the world. He's
also looked up and used AI face swap on
multiple occasions, which explains the
profile photo that we saw earlier. And
finally, there's Google Translate
searches that show him translating email
correspondents and job tasks from
English to Korean. Good morning,
everyone. Last week, I've worked on some
factoring tasks. When you line up all of
the digital breadcrumbs, the AI face
swap, the remote access software, the
English Korean translations, researchers
say that the pattern is clear. The man
claiming to be Elias Alma Carti Mans is
likely to actually be a North Korean IT
worker.
[Music]
Time to pause and celebrate a birthday
for a beloved giant panda. Bow Lee at
Washington Smithsonian National Zoo
turned four on Monday. Staff surprised
him with a cake made of frozen fruit,
and visitors in person and online
watched him chow down. Bali's been
bamboozling us with his adorable antics
since he was a tiny cub, but he's
growing up so fast, it's unbearable. The
celebration is part of the zoo's ongoing
efforts to raise funds for panda
conservation.
[Applause]
Today's story getting a 10 out of 10. A
man's best friend hanging 10 over the
weekend. World dog surfing
championships. Pacifica State Beach,
California. You've heard of swag and
surf. How about wagon surf? K9
contestants competing for the Golden
Surfy Award. judged by how long they can
stay on the board, whether they do some
dog on tricks, and overall enthusiasm.
I grab the surfboard, she starts crying
like she wants to go. So, ever since
then, it's just been like, "All right,
you're the surfer in the family."
Congrats to the top dog, Cacao, a
chocolate lab whose galvanic performance
was deemed the tail wagon winner across
seven different categories. All right,
superstars. Did you catch today's Your
Word Wednesday? Congrats to Mr. Taylor
at Autism Solutions Academy for
galvanic, an adjective meaning having an
electric effect. Intensely exciting. A
totally galvanic word. Well done, sir.
Our shoutouts today are going to East
Chicago Urban Enterprise Academy. Thank
you for all of the heartfelt letters,
the drawings, and origami. Are you
kidding me? Your origami got me right in
the heartstrings. It's incredible. And
from our YouTube channel comment
section, Mrs. Myers at Warren Central
High School in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Rise up. Thank you for making us part of
your day. Let's go out and make this an
awesome day. We'll do it again tomorrow.
I'm Ky Wire and we are CNN 10.