What's up, sunshine? Happy Friday. I'm
From international relations to feeding
baby vultures with puppets today. Your
10 minutes of news starts now. We start
with a brand new partnership between the
US and Ukraine focused on underground
goodies, rare earth minerals. These are
some of the ingredients needed for our
tech. Things like lithium for batteries
and phones and EV cars, strong titanium
for airplanes, and elements vital for
computers, even defense systems. Turns
out Ukraine has lots of them. The US and
Ukraine just signed a major agreement
creating a special joint investment
fund, sort of like a shared high-tech
piggy bank. The fund aims to help
Ukraine develop these mineral resources
while keeping full ownership and control
of everything underground while America
contributes money to the fund and
potentially military aid like air
defense systems like the US has done in
the past. Ukraine in exchange will put
in some of the money earned from future
mining projects. So why is this deal so
significant? First, it's aimed at
boosting Ukraine's economy. Second, it
helps the US secure access to these
important minerals, which means the US
can rely less on supply chains from
other parts of the world. Third, it
shows a strong long-term commitment from
the US supporting Ukraine's future. One
big question, how might this impact
Ukraine's ongoing war with Russia?
Here's part of what US Treasury
Secretary Scott Bessett had to say.
Today's agreement signals clearly to
Russian leadership that the Trump
administration is committed to a peace
process centered on a free, sovereign,
and prosperous Ukraine over the long
term. It's time for this cruel and
senseless war to end. This week, two
NASA astronauts conducted the fifth all
female spacew walk ever. Nicole Ays and
Anne Mlan suited up in their extra
vehicular mobility units and spacewalked
outside of the International Space
Station. Spending about six and a half
hours hard at work. They relocated a
space station communications antenna
installed the first round of gear needed
for an additional power generation
system. This was the very first spacew
walk for astronaut Iris and Air Force
instructor pilot with more than 200
combat hours. This was the third spacew
walk for Miss Mlan, a colonel in the US
Army whose call sign is animal, dating
back to her rugby career. This marked
the 275th spacew walk conducted on the
ISS for space station assembly,
maintenance, and upgrades. Now to an
environmental crisis affecting Florida's
beloved manatees. Around 1,200 of the
aquatic mammals have died from
starvation after their main source of
food, seaggrass, has been wiped out by
pollutants. Randy K went to Florida's
Indian River Lagoon for an uplose look.
Take a look.
We're heading out on Florida's Indian
River Lagoon, which stretches from Palm
Beach County to Daytona Beach. The
lagoon is where Florida manatees come
for the warm water. But in recent years,
the northern end of the lagoon has been
a death trap for them. All these homes
along the lagoon that are on septic
tanks are slowly leaking literally uh
tons of nitrogen and phosphorus into the
system. Marine biologist Peter Belli has
studied manatees for decades. He says
those pollutants are being released by
septic tanks and water treatment
facilities along the lagoon and are
fueling algae growth in the water, which
is causing the manatee's main food
source, seaggrass, to die. So this algae
is reducing light down to the
seagrasses, essentially smothering them
and killing them. He says manatees need
to eat nearly 100 lbs of vegetation a
day. Between December 2020 and April
2022, more than 1,200 manatees died of
starvation. Most of them here in the
northern part of the Indian River
Lagoon. Just a couple of decades ago,
the water in this Indian River Lagoon
was crystal clear. You could easily see
down to the bottom. Now it's dark and
murky and polluted with chemicals and
algae. With their seaggrass gone, the
manatees had little choice but to eat
the algae that killed it, which is toxic
for them. Their normally round bodies
became flat as they became more and more
emaciated. Katrina Shadex is the
executive director of Bear Warriors
United, which sued Florida's Department
of Environmental Protection in 2022 to
help protect the manatees. They suffered
immensely and for a very long time. When
a manatee starves to death, it's an
extremely painful process. These photos
from Bear Warriors United show how
desperate some of the manatees were,
attempting to pull themselves out of the
water to eat leaves off dry land or
grass along the water's edge. On this
beach in the lagoon, Katrina says she
found many manatee carcasses. She showed
us some of their bones that still remain
and shared this picture with us of a
manatee skull. Earlier this month, a
federal judge ruled in favor of Bear
Warriors United and against the state,
finding Florida's Department of
Environmental Protection was quote in
violation of the Endangered Species Act.
There was lacks leadership from the
state of Florida. The state of Florida
has admitted that it will be 12 to 15
years before seaggrasses start to
recover. We reached out to both the
Florida Department of Environmental
Protection and Florida Governor Ronda
Santis, but neither provided a response
to our questions. Are you hopeful the
manatee population will come back here?
I am hopeful now. I wasn't at first. I I
was convinced that this home herd was
going to go extinct and that the rest of
the state manatees would follow. But now
that we won this lawsuit, we think we
have a really good chance of working
with the state to make sure the manatees
don't go extinct on our watch.
Pop quiz hot shot. The Michelin Guide
for Raiding Restaurants with Stars began
in 1926 as a way to sell what? Vacuums,
cameras, wristwatches, or tires?
You're entirely correct if you said
tires. The Michelin Tire Company first
published the Michelin Guide in 1900
with maps, hotels, gas stations, and
mechanics. It promoted travel in France.
Airgo the need for tires. The first
Michelin stars were awarded in 1926 when
a restaurant and hospitality section was
added. Now to a trailblazing Michelin
chef for our CNN series, Visionaries.
Our Kyouung Law sat down with San
Francisco based chef Dominique Krenn,
the first woman in the US to earn three
Michelin stars. We find out how her
native France and her time by the sea
influence her menu.
Dominique Kren, nature lover. I love to
be alone. I love to walk through
landscape. A father's daughter is daddy
and dummy.
and hot dog
connoisseur. Perhaps a surprising choice
for the first woman in the United States
to earn three Michelin stars, joining a
very short list of female chefs
worldwide to garner such recognition.
But for Dominique Krenn, the title of
chef is just that, a title. My title
might be a chef, but I am a human being
that is using my craft as a language to
be able to dialogue to others. Born just
outside of Paris, Dominic was adopted as
a baby to a politician father and a
mother who worked in finance. Look at
this. So, this is my mom. This is my
dad. This is my brother. And this is
little Dom already touching food. You
know, look at her. It was their roots in
a Celtic region of France that first
inspired Dominique.
I kind of want to start by asking just
about how you grew up because you talk a
lot about place where you first remember
life beginning for you. Both of my
parents are from Britany. So Britany is
a place in France that is um on the
coast, the Atlantic coast. It's rough.
It's raw. Is untouch. I spend a lot of
time by the sea. And this is where where
I start to to become to become
me. Today's story getting a 10 out of
10. Zookeepers at the Bronx Zoo in New
York for doing whatever it takes to feed
one of their newest additions. handlers
employing a very special puppet to
handfeed a brand new baby vulture.
Apparently, this species of king vulture
has a tendency to neglect their chicks.
So, hand feeding can be necessary to
ensure these babies survive. But also
important that the baby bird doesn't
identify too closely with its human
handlers. Now, we all know vultures main
source of food is dead animals like
roadkill, right?
But did you know vultures are essential
in the preventing the spread of disease
in wildlife populations? All 23 species
of vultures have stomach acid so strong,
so powerful it can sterilize animal
bones and its immediate surroundings,
killing bacteria that causes bachulism,
anthrax, and rabies. In fact, some
researchers in India believe hundreds of
thousands of human illnesses could have
been prevented if it weren't for the
decline of the country's vulture
population. the cleanup crew you never
knew you
needed. All right, let's bring this show
home. Big Friday shout out going to Mr.
Blair and all our friends, the Wildcats
at Columbia Falls Junior High in
Columbia Falls, Montana. Wildcat strong,
rise up. And Anelise, you designed this.
Well done. Cue that Friday music now,
Eric. You never know when, you never
know how, but you may be the light
someone needs. You are more powerful
than you know. So shine bright this
weekend, y'all. May the fourth be with
you. I'm Koi Wire and we are CNN
10.
Heat. Heat.
Heat.