What's up, sunshine? I'm Koi Wire. This
is CNN 10, where we give you the what,
letting you decide what to think. Today,
two highstakes meetings at the White
House that could shape overseas wars. A
swamp, a mountain, and a World War II
battlefield, all earning one of the
world's highest honors. and BTS taking a
stand against the Grammys. All that and
more. Your CNN 10 starts now. We begin
in Washington DC where the Oval Office
played host to back-toback meetings that
could influence conflicts stretching
from Eastern Europe to the Middle East.
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump
hosted Ukrainian President Vladimir
Zalinski at the White House as Russia
continued launching heavy attacks across
Ukraine. The two leaders discussed the
US giving Ukraine Patriot missile
defense systems which are designed to
intercept incoming missiles as well as
the possibility of reviving diplomatic
efforts to end the war now in its fourth
year. Later that day, President Trump
hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu for talks on the expanding
conflict in the Middle East. The meeting
came as Netanyahu campaigns for
reelection back home. While relations
between the two leaders have appeared
more strained in recent months,
officials from both sides describe the
talks as productive. What do a
superersized swamp, Greek gods, and a
famous World War II battlefield have in
common? They all just earned one of the
world's biggest honors. UNESCO's World
Heritage List includes places considered
so culturally or naturally important
that they're viewed as treasures
belonging to all of humanity, not just
one country. The designation often
brings additional conservation efforts
aimed at protecting sites from threats
like climate change, pollution, and over
tourism. This week, the committee
announced 25 new additions. That
includes the beaches of Normandy in
France. On June 6th, 1944, during World
War II, better known as D-Day, more than
150,000 Allied troops stormed those
shores in the largest seaborn invasion
ever, helping begin the liberation of
Western Europe from Nazi Germany.
Greece's Mount Olympus also made the
list. Ancient Greeks believed it was
home to Zeus and the Olympian gods,
while today's scientists value it for
its extraordinary biodiversity with
thousands of plant and animal species.
And right here in Georgia, Oki Finoi
National Wildlife Refuge earned World
Heritage status as well. North America's
largest freshwater swamp stretches
across roughly 700 square miles, nearly
the size of Houston, and provides
habitat for black bears, sandill cranes,
and thousands of alligators. The
newcomers now join legendary sites like
Machu Picchu, the Taj Mahal, and
Australia's Great Barrier Reef. One of
the most popular bands on Earth is
sitting out music's biggest award. K-pop
Phenom BTS says it won't submit its
music for Grammy consideration after the
Recording Academy created a new category
recognizing Asian pop music performance.
The group says it believes music should
be judged by its artistry, not by
language or geography. Some fans argue
it would effectively box out Asian
artists from the Grammys biggest awards
like album of the year. BTS has
previously been nominated for five
Grammys, but has not won yet. This year,
the group reunited and released a new
album after completing their military
service. The CEO of the Grammys told CNN
he is disappointed, but said, quote, "As
a music creator, I understand and
respect their decision." The new Asian
pop music performance category will
debut at the 2027 Grammy Awards in
February. What do you think? Do
categories like these create more
opportunities or do they risk separating
artists who should compete together? Hit
pause and discuss.
10 second trivia. Which of these comic
publishers was founded first? DC,
Marvel, Darkhorse, or Image?
If you said DC, you're Superman. DC was
launched as National Allied Publications
in 1935, but Marvel wasn't far behind,
launching in 1939.
Comic-Con 2026 has officially wrapped,
and once again, San Diego transformed
into Superhero Central. Since 1970,
Comic-Con has grown from a gathering of
a few hundred fans into one of the
biggest pop culture events on the
planet, attracting artists, actors,
filmmakers, and fans from around the
globe. This year, legendary cartoonist
Jeff Smith, the creator of the beloved
Bone series, received one of the comics
highest honors, induction into the
Eisner Hall of Fame. We had the chance
to catch up with him to hear how a love
of drawing at a very young age changed
his life forever.
between like five and nine was when I
really started to understand to get into
comics. The art form, the pictures and
the word balloons and how the pacing of
as you went from panel to panel, how it
how it became real, how it would come
alive. I was fascinated by that. Of
course, the characters had a lot to do
with it, too.
>> I knew that Charles Schultz created
Snoopy. I knew that Mickey Mouse was
made up by Walt Disney. He was on
television every Saturday night. And I
wanted to make up a character cuz I just
love cartoons. I don't know why cartoons
spoke to me, but they did. They looked
to me kind of the way dreams look to me.
All the comics that I really love were
written and drawn by the same person. It
just didn't occur to me that I would do
it any other way. Right. The first
character I really kind of like started
drawing more than once was this little
guy called Phone Bone. His name was
Phone Bone. This is what he looked like
the first time I drew him. Then he had
his cranky cousin who who was a phony
phone bone. And then Smiling Bone was
kind of like a cross between Goofy and
Ed Norton on the Honeymooners. I was
part of a generation that really wanted
to do our own characters and tell our
own stories. It would be more like
authors than just a pencil. This is a
golden age happening and it's kind of
underground, but it's open. There's
self-publishers. They're smaller
boutique publishers. This is an
opportunity. This is somewhere I can do
the comic exactly as I want it. I'm just
taking the risk myself. It's if it
doesn't work, it's no big deal. I'll try
it. Every two months, I put out a new
chapter as like a 24-page comic book,
black and white. Bone in the comic book
world had pretty high numbers. I was
within like 5,000 copies a month of
Batman. No books were like that. You
[music] know, we did not have like all
ages books in the '90s. It was really
like these comics are aimed at, I don't
know, teens and older. And when Bone
comes out, it's like a revelation. The
results spoke for themselves. Bone
wasn't just a hit comic. It was a
business.
>> It took 12 years and it grew not only in
this in story but in readership. I mean
it I was really getting to know a lot of
people and people loved it. That was
lightning in a bottle. Everything came
together.
>> Stores got behind it which was very
deliberate. Like Jeff Smith did a lot of
work to make that happen. It wasn't an
accident. He put together a business
plan to self-publish that book. So
[music] now you've got one more hero
self-publisher who's talking about his
experience doing that. [music] Now
that's information I can apply to my own
practice. And I have a lot of admiration
for Jeff Smith and what he's done. You
spend so much time with that [music]
story. I mean from your conception to
outlines, thumbnails, sketches, [music]
pencils, tight pencils, inking,
coloring, lettering, you live with this
story. And if you don't love it or
understand how much time it's it's it's
hard. But the path to success is rarely
easy and far from a straight line. At
points, Jeff seemed ready to call it
quits until he received some
encouragement from an unlikely place.
>> What saved me was the librarians.
[music] We didn't know it, but the
libraries had been starting to stop him
and they noticed the kids were checking
them out. The librarians [music] started
calling Scholastic and said, "You've got
to publish this book." So, Scholastic
called us and we've been approached by
publishers before, but they didn't know
what to do with it. But Scholastic says,
"We do know what to do with it. We're
going to publish it as a children's book
and [music] we're going to we're going
to put it on the shelves right next to
Harry Potter."
>> But behind every great creator, there's
a partner helping bring these characters
to life. And none of this would be
possible without Jeff's longtime
partner, Va.
>> She's been not only my best friend and
my my partner, but she's also been one
of the people who mostly encouraged me
to do this. She handles all the all
[music] the business, the agents, the
lawyers. To do something this difficult
and personal,
you need to have somebody on your side.
I don't think there was a chance I could
have succeeded on this level uh had she
not been fully vested.
>> Despite selling more than 10 million
books in dozens of countries worldwide,
Jeff says he's not done. He's continuing
to work on new projects, but says it
never gets old to hear that his first
drawings are earning new fans every day.
>> She actually drew this. Isn't that
amazing?
>> The part that's kind of hard for me to
take in sometimes is that this book
[music] when they were a kid had a real
effect on them. And it reminds me of
when I was that age and I was reading
Peanuts and Uncle Scrooge comics. The
effect that that had on me. So, it's
it's [music] really wonderful to take
in. And oh gosh, it's really a good
feeling. [music]
Today's story getting a 10 out of 10. A
really awesome tradition at one of the
NFL's oldest stadiums. Some NFL players
drive luxury cars to work. Green Bay
Packers players sometimes they ride
bikes borrowed from kids. The Packers
open their training camp with one of the
league's most fun traditions, the dream
drive. Every summer, young fans line up
outside Lambeau Field, hoping a player
chooses their bike for a ride to
practice. I got to do this when I played
for the Buffalo Bills, and we had some
crossover practices there. It was
awesome. From Lambo to the practice
field, sometimes the shortest ride can
create memories that last a lifetime.
And get this, they've been doing it for
more than 60 years, dating back to
legendary coach Vince Lombardi. Now,
that is how you roll to the football
season. All right, before we go, we have
a shout out to Mr. Johnson and all of
our warriors at Woodsbend Youth
Development Center in West Liberty,
Kentucky. Rise up. And we're also
showing some appreciation to Mr. Lee at
P25R in Staten Island, New York. Thank
you for hanging out with us this summer.
You rock. Two more Summer Friday
episodes before we get back to our
Monday through Friday jam on August
17th. Wherever life takes you, be
curious, be kind, and remember, you are
more powerful than you know. I'm Koi
Wire and we are CNN 10.