COY WIRE: Hello, lovely people.
Wonderful Wednesday to you.
I'm Coy Wire, and we are so grateful that you're making us
part of your day right here on "CNN 10,"
the best 10 minutes in news.
Random thought for you before we start--
why is it that we park on a driveway,
but we drive on a parkway?
All right, let's shift into high gear now.
We start today with more on President
Biden's visit to Ukraine.
On Tuesday, the President gave a speech
in Poland after making a surprise visit to Ukraine
on Monday, nearly one year after Russia
started its invasion there.
The President recommitted the support of the United States
and its resources to Ukraine--
this despite the rising costs of sending aid.
The US has already given about $30 billion,
and recent polls show public support for America continuing
to send weapons to Ukraine is fading as well-- down to 48%
last month, when 60% of Americans
supported it back in May.
Just hours earlier on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir
Putin slammed the West in his annual State of the Nation
address in Moscow, casting Russia as the victim,
saying that it was Ukraine and its Western allies who
started the war.
He says Russia's military efforts in Ukraine
are to protect themselves, and Putin
offered no signs of backing down from their presence in Ukraine.
So why did President Biden risk entering an active war
zone that isn't showing any signs of settling
down in the near future?
Biden was not the first president
to make a trip to a war zone.
But he is the first to do so without a US military presence
in the region to protect him.
Here's CNN's Brian Todd to tell us about other US presidents
who traveled to war zones, and why they did that.
BRIAN TODD: It was at the height of World War II,
and the conflict still wasn't going America's way.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
engaged in a high-stakes game of misdirection,
tricking journalists into thinking he was taking a train
to his home in upstate New York, but he secretly
switched trains in Baltimore, headed to Miami,
then took a series of arduous plane
hops and ended up in Casablanca, Morocco.
It was January 1943, the first time a sitting American
president rode on an airplane-- a trip shrouded in secrecy,
so that FDR could strategize with Winston Churchill--
a journey fraught with danger.
TIM NAFTALI: In World War II, you not only
had the possibility of the commander-in-chief
being shot down.
But the technology was such that air
travel was not as safe in the 1940s as it is today.
- Some US troops in Morocco didn't
know their president was coming, until he
rode past them in a Jeep.
Historians say war-zone trips for American presidents
have always been complicated, even
dating back to the Civil War.
LINDSAY CHERVINSKY: At least 12 presidents
have gone to war zones in the past,
starting of course with Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.
There are those famous pictures of him in his top hat,
visiting Union soldiers to boost their morale.
But it is a big risk.
- Lyndon B. Johnson went twice as president.
Richard Nixon once to Vietnam while the war there was raging.
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY: I know when Nixon went in 1969 to Saigon,
all of his advisors were saying, don't do it.
It's too dangerous.
- George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump
went to Iraq and Afghanistan to visit US troops.
TIM NAFTALI: When those presidents
went to Kabul and Baghdad, respectively,
they were taking huge risks.
- When George HW Bush, as a former president,
visited Kuwait in 1993, Saddam Hussein's intelligence service
tried to have Iraqi operatives assassinate him-- a plot
that was narrowly foiled.
Presidents have taken these risks to boost troops morale,
to strategize with other commanders,
and sometimes to decide whether a war should even continue.
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER: I shall go to Korea.
- That was Dwight D. Eisenhower's objective
as president-elect when he took a secret trip to South
Korea in December 1952.
Eisenhower not only went to meet the troops,
not only went to meet the South Korean leader,
but actually took a plane over Chinese and North Korean
positions to get a view himself of the nature
of their defenses.
That was an extremely hazardous trip.
BRIAN TODD: Historian Tim Naftali
says despite the sometimes incredible risks,
the rewards are very high--
that as commander-in-chief, it's crucial for a president
to show their commitment to the fight,
and to show that not only to American forces,
but to their adversaries as well.
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COY WIRE: 10 second trivia, what Italian city is also known
by the nickname Serenissima?
Palermo, Genoa, Venice, or Florence?
[BEEPING]
Meaning serene, La Serenissima was a nickname
for the Republic of Venice.
Ah, Venice the floating city with people being serenaded
in gondolas as they drift through winding
canals under hundreds of walkways and bridges.
But those famous canals look a lot different right now.
They're so dried up that many of the gondolas and water taxis
are sadly sitting on empty waterways.
And there are fears that Italy will face a drought
for a second straight summer following
an extremely dry winter.
Now these images are a stark contrast from those
of just a few years ago.
In 2019, water poured into restaurants, shops,
and famous landmarks like St. Mark's Basilica in Venice
as it battled its worst flood in 50 years.
Here's reporting from CNN International correspondent
Scott McLean during that time as we try to imagine
the scope of issues Venetians had to deal
with the last several years.
SCOTT MCLEAN: High tide on Saturday
was actually welcome relief for Venetians
struggling with the worst flooding in half a century.
It filled historic St. Mark's Square,
but was not enough to do more damage than already done.
This cafe opened for the first time
since Tuesday's high watermark sent more than a foot
of water inside, enough to break the dishwasher and the fridge.
This waiter told us--
LORENZO ROCCHIN: [SPEAKING IN ITALIAN]
SCOTT MCLEAN: "--We are Venetians.
We roll up our sleeves and start working again.
Venice is our lady.
We will protect her."
Meanwhile, at St. Mark's Basilica, the water at the door
didn't knock before entering, but it
still got their attention.
PIERPAOLO CAMPOSTRINI: We have more than this level of water.
SCOTT MCLEAN: It's not uncommon for water
to enter the outer atrium.
There's even a special drainage system to handle it.
But Pierpaolo Capistrini says it was just the second time
there's been significant flooding
in the main chamber, 10 centimeters there
and another meter in the crypt.
The water came and went quickly, but the Salt in the water
stays in the 900-year-old walls much longer,
eating away at the marble and brick near the floor and even
on the mosaic ceiling.
And that's the damage?
PIERPAOLO CAMPOSTRINI: And that's the damage there.
SCOTT MCLEAN: The Basilica has survived centuries of threats,
but nothing like the one it faces today.
COY WIRE: For today's story getting a 10 out of 10,
you're going to meet George, a young Detroit Red Wings fan who
went to his very first game and he
and his mom were in for a huge surprise
when George became a big-time hit on the jumbotron.
JEANNE MOOS: It was George's first hockey game.
And the jumbotron ate him up, Detroit Red Wing fans booing.
Opposing fans from Vancouver cheering.
Every time George came up, even if he didn't quite get it,
the opposition--
[BOO] the home team, [CHEERING].
George finally cracked a smile and went viral.
"King George," they called him.
"I see a George bobblehead night."
But it didn't give George a big head.
CHELSEA MILLER: Like he didn't know it was about him
and just kept saying like, yes, red team is winning.
JEANNE MOOS: Chelsea Miller describes
her four-year-old son as shy amid a whirlwind of attention.
CHELSEA MILLER: There were probably at least 100 people
that asked to stop to take pictures with him
and high fives and "can I get an autograph" even.
JEANNE MOOS: Mom says they were hoping
his sign would get George on camera,
but they weren't expecting this.
CHELSEA MILLER: Everyone just made it so special for us.
JEANNE MOOS: University of Michigan hockey wondered,
"George, do you need a Michigan Jersey for the next game?"
"George's grandma here and he definitely needs a jersey."
COY WIRE: Nothing brings people together like sports.
Hey, today is #YourWordWednesday.
So follow me @CoyWire on Insta, Snapchat, and TikTok.
And put your challenge word in the comment section
of the most recent post.
And we're going to choose one fun one
to work in to tomorrow's show.
The last word was Brobdingnagian,
meaning gigantic.
And it's with great pleasure that we give a Brobdingnagian
shout out to Maple Grove Middle School
in Maple Grove, Minnesota.
Thanks for subscribing and commenting
on our CNN 10 YouTube channel.
See you tomorrow lovely people.
I'm Coy Wire and we are CNN 10.
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