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COY WIRE: Hello, everyone.
It's Thursday, so Happy Friday Eve.
I'm Coy Wire, and we're going to start this day with a shout
out to all the teachers out there.
Keep uplifting, guiding, and inspiring.
You're so money, baby.
Students, dap up your teacher today.
Give them a handshake or high-five
and let them know you appreciate them.
Speaking of money, let's start today by talking about the debt
ceiling in the United States.
In case you're still unsure about exactly
what the debt ceiling is, we've got you covered.
You could also call it the government's debt limit.
It's the total amount of money the United States government is
authorized to borrow to meet its existing legal obligations
like paying for military salaries, tax refunds, Social
Security and Medicare benefits, and interest
on the national debt, among other things.
But once the debt limit is reached
and if the government can't borrow
any more money, that means the government could fail to make
payments, fail to take care of its own obligations
by defaulting on all national debt,
and that would greatly impact the US government's
reputation across the globe.
We'll hear more now from White House correspondent Arlette
Saenz on what the United States government
could be facing in the near future,
and what the impact could be.
ARLETTE SAENZ: President Biden and House Speaker Kevin
McCarthy are heading towards a high stakes
showdown over the debt ceiling.
This will be the first time Biden and McCarthy are meeting
in person since McCarthy became House Speaker,
and both sides have said the debt
limit will be on the table.
Now, both men have said that they don't want
to see the nation default on their debt,
but for the time being they disagree on how to get there.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has insisted
that he believes there should be negotiations,
and that ultimately they believe that there
need to be spending cuts if the debt ceiling will be raised.
But President Biden and the White House
have insisted that there will be no negotiations over this,
and that Congress must fulfill their obligation
to raise the debt ceiling.
A spokesperson for the White House saying in a statement,
"The President will ask Speaker McCarthy
if he intends to meet his constitutional obligation
to prevent a national default, as every other house and Senate
leader in US history has done, and
as leaders McConnell Schumer and Jeffries have pledged to do."
The President, they add, "will underscore that the economic
security of all Americans cannot be
held hostage to force unpopular cuts on working families."
Now, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen
has said that they are using extraordinary measures
until this moment, and that the nation's debt limit
must be raised by early June.
So certainly this could have huge ripple effects
for the US economy if the nation were to default on their debt.
COY WIRE: OK, imagine trying to find a tiny capsule just 8
millimeters long and trying to find it on an enormous highway
in Australia.
Now imagine the pressure when this tiny capsule
is filled with a highly radioactive material.
A capsule containing cesium 137, which can cause serious harm,
went missing as it traveled hundreds and hundreds of miles
from a mining site to Perth, the capital of Western Australia.
Authorities said this would have been like trying
to find a needle in a haystack.
So was this search worthless?
Was this mission just an exercise in
floccinaucinihilipilification.
Or did they find this elusive capsule after all?
Here's CNN International correspondent
Marc Stewart with the latest.
MARC STEWART: The radioactive capsule has been found.
And to give you some context, this is a Hong Kong coin
similar in size to a US dime.
It's that small.
It is used in mining.
Here is the history.
The capsule was discovered six days
after authorities realized it went
missing, likely after falling off a truck.
Eventually, it was found off the side of a road by crews
using radiation detection equipment.
It was found not far from the Rio Tinto mine,
suggesting it fell off the truck soon
after it left on January 12th.
But the potential search area was enormous, a distance longer
than the California coastline.
A perimeter was set up.
And now the goal is to transport it in a lead container
to a Health Department facility in Perth.
This was concerning because human exposure could cause skin
burns radiation, sickness.
There's even a cancer risk in some cases.
Authorities felt the chance of finding it was slim.
Now they must determine how this happened in the first place.
COY WIRE: 10 second trivia.
Which airplane model was the first airplane
to be considered a jumbo jet?
747, DC-10, 737, or A380?
With its first flight on February 9th, 1969,
the 747 is your answer here.
It was called jumbo jet, as it was
the first wide-body airliner.
And up next, we will salute the queen
of the skies, the Boeing 747.
The spacious and sleek aircraft that was once
touted as the future of airplane travel when it took off in 1969
is now a plane of the past, as airlines are opting for more
fuel efficient alternatives.
This week, Boeing completed and delivered the last 747 to ever
be built. And on Wednesday, the plane
flew a path spelling out 747 on the flight tracker
to commemorate the moment.
Let's learn more about the history of this jumbo jet
and what's in store for the airlines of the future.
- When it was revealed in 1969, it broke the mold
and defined jumbo.
It brought jet travel to the people,
carried world leaders, cultural icons, and even spacecraft.
For half a century it was the queen of the skies,
but now the last model has been delivered.
Boeing 747 is beginning to approach its final touchdown.
Built to meet the boom in demand for air travel in the 1960s,
the 747 was a giant that needed the world's largest factory
to match its jumbo proportions.
225 feet from nose to tail, it had a wing surface
bigger than a basketball court.
And its innovative wide body, double aisle, and double deck
design would allow it to carry up to 500 passengers
while ensuring it would also be a freight hauling behemoth
with looks like no other.
- Pan-Am will bring you the plane
with all the room in the world before you know it.
- Taking to the skies for its first commercial flight
in 1970, the 747 cut airfares in half
and opened up a world of affordable air travel.
Airlines across the globe clamored
to have a jumbo jet in their fleet,
and airports and their equipment had
to be modified to accommodate its enormous size
and passenger capacity.
But spacious interiors, a trademark spiral staircase,
and superior service also had the world's
rich and famous flocking.
Glamorous silver screen appearances cemented
its lavish reputation, and it became the go-to transport
for many of the world's elite, a trend
set to continue with the presidentially
modified Air Force One.
The 747 was so capable, it was even used to transport
NASA's space shuttles.
And it continues to be used to launch
satellites with Virgin Orbit.
But the queen of the skies' days of carrying passengers
are entering their final chapter.
Sales of the redesigned 7478 failed to take off,
with airlines opting for more fuel-efficient
two-engined alternatives.
Pandemic travel lockdowns grounded much of the remaining
fleet, and the last 747 made, like most still in service,
will be used to fly cargo.
And so, after half a century of service,
the sun is beginning to set on Boeing's 747.
It will be remembered as one of the most
important airplanes ever made.
COY WIRE: And today's story getting a 10 out of 10,
a Rorschach test from Mars.
What do you see when you look at this photo of a rock formation
on Mars?
A Rorschach test is a psychological test where
a person looks at inkblots and then reveals what they see,
and psychologists analyze the answers to examine a person's
personality characteristics.
It's all in the eyes of the bear-holder.
What this actually that we're seeing
is a circular fracture on the surface of Mars with craters.
This high-resolution photo is captured by a Reconnaissance
Orbiter, a spacecraft designed to search
for the existence of water on Mars
as part of NASA's Mars exploration program.
All right, so many great Your Word Wednesday
submissions yesterday.
Thanks to Ms. Spicer's civics class at Hughes,
today's word is floccinaucinihilipilification.
And this is a noun, one of the longest
words in the English language.
Not easy to pronounce, it means the estimation of something
as valueless.
Well done, everyone.
And shout out now to Butte County
High School in Acro, Idaho.
We see you.
We hope you and everyone watching around the world
have a wonderful one.
I'm Coy Wire, and this is CNN 10.
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