[Music]
Hello and welcome to CNN 10. I'm Ky Wire
with your news for Thursday, August
14th. First, a random thought Thursday
for you. Why is it that when we have
more than one goose, we call them geese,
but more than one moose isn't me. The
plural is still moose. And a group of
squids is called a schol. Shouldn't a
group of squids be called a squad? The
collective nouns can be confusing.
Without further ado, your 10 minutes of
news starts now. Big news for those of
you with college applications on the
horizon. The free application for
federal student aid or FAFSA has opened
early. The Department of Education says
a small number of beta testers can now
access the application. And if you
can't, no worries. It will be available
to everyone starting October 1st. For
those of you that need a FAFSA
refresher, we got you covered. The FAFSA
uses your family's financial information
to determine how much government
financial aid you may qualify for to
attend college. It's sent to any schools
you're interested in attending so they
can calculate how much aid you could
receive. Still not sure if you need one?
The Department of Education says anyone
planning on attending college should
fill one out since it helps determine if
you qualify for other aid programs. Lots
of students and families were making a
mistake early on in their college
research. And this mistake was crossing
an expensive school off of their list of
consideration early on without following
through and finding out how much
financial aid that school is actually
giving out. If this sounds like a lot to
keep track of, no worries. You can head
to studentaid.gov to create a profile
and get started as early as today. And
while the final deadline isn't until
June of next year, many states encourage
youth to apply as early as possible. An
unprecedented wildfire season is
continuing to thrash Europe, and there
doesn't appear to be any relief in sight
for the world's fastest warming
continent. Record heat and droughts have
helped fuel the blazes across the
continent. More than 2200 firefighters
have been deployed across Spain and
Portugal, where temperatures are also
expected to be well above 100°
Fahrenheit in the coming days. And it's
not just the Iberian Peninsula. Dozens
of fires are raging across Italy,
France, and parts of the Balkans,
prompting evacuations, threatening
landmarks, and claiming at least one
life. Officials say the fires have
burned through nearly 2.4 million acres
so far this year, putting 2025 on pace
to be the most expansive European
wildfire season to date. Scientists also
warned that as the human-caused climate
crisis escalates, these wildfires will
only become more frequent and severe.
10 second trivia. Which city is home to
the fastest operational train in the
world? Moscow, Tokyo, Shanghai, or
Sydney?
All aboard. The fastest train in the
world is the Shanghai Mag Lev. The
transrapid commercial train travels at
approximately 286 mph using
electromagnetic propulsion. They rarely
even touch the tracks. The Shanghai Mag
Lev can covid-19 miles in less than
eight minutes.
Two of America's largest railroad
companies, Union Pacific and Norfolk
Southern, just announced a mega proposal
to create America's first
transcontinental freight railroad.
Railroads are crucial to America's
economy, carrying about 30% of the
nation's freight in terms of weight.
Trains transport cars, retail goods,
food and energy products, as well as raw
materials and parts needed to run many
factories. Transcontinental rail service
for people or travelers has been
available since 1869, right after the
end of the Civil War. But moving goods
or freight cross country has always
required they be handed off from one
railroad to another. In theory, this
plan would allow stuff to get sent on a
train all the way from the port of Los
Angeles to the ports in New England more
efficiently and cut down on emissions
because fewer goods would be shipped in
18-wheelers. Still, experts say the
merger could take months, if not years,
for the deal to close. Meet Wavy Dave, a
robotic fiddler crab built to mimic the
weird and wonderful ways these crabs
flirt. Scientists are studying which
claw waving moves make female crabs
swoon. And Dave's got some shellberty
type of swagger. As you can see, it's a
pinch of science, a wave of technology,
and maybe even a little captivating
courtship. Our Shannon Hodgej has more.
>> It's crab versus machine.
As researchers at the University of
Exiter built this robot dubbed Wavy Dave
to study how male fiddler crabs compete
for female attention, scientists placed
Wavy Dave on a mudflat teameming with
thousands of crabs and gave the robot
claws of varying sizes to wave near a
real male's burrow. I was very surprised
at how they reacted because the
pessimist in me thought they won't see
this as as a as a crab that you know
they'll see through it that we're
essentially trying to pull a magic trick
on them and I didn't think that it would
work.
>> Cameras captured how the crabs adapted,
finding that the males abandoned their
normal routines and continued waving
their massive claw to compete with the
robot. adapting your strategy and kind
of rolling with the punches. That's not
something that's special to humans.
>> While some males were less likely to
compete when a rival had a larger claw,
others would not back down from this
robotic intruder.
>> The fight between the fiddle crab and
wavy Dave, I wasn't expecting it when
the individual did manage to break the
claw off. I thought it wouldn't be
strong enough. That just goes to show
that you should never um you should
never try and predict what's going to
happen when you're working with animals.
We went on some CNN 10 field trips this
summer. One town making the list, Las
Cusus, New Mexico. Beware, this report
might make you hungry. This laid-back
town is famous for one of their iconic
foods that's part of centuries old
traditions. Let's check out the unique
blend of captivating sites, cultures,
and cuisine that made New Mexico's
second largest city one of CNN's
America's best towns to visit.
Southwest cuisine is the mix of Native
American culture and Spanish culture and
whatever is growing around you at the
time.
>> In Las Cuses, New Mexico, southwestern
cuisine has evolved over hundreds of
years. Chef Ruiz Gonzalez grew up on the
food here in the Messia Valley. Now he
honors the region's evolving culinary
traditions in his own cooking. So as
people move through the city, they leave
their spices behind. They leave their
traditions behind and the food builds on
that. This is where a lot of that
mestisake, that mixing of of cultures
happened in this area. So that's why the
food is so good.
>> It was time to spread my culinary wings.
Our first stop, the James Beard
nominated Chopes. This is my first time
trying chili rienos. I am tasting
history right now. Here we go.
>> That's it.
>> It's so good.
>> The Hatch green chili really takes
center stage in Southwest cuisine. It's
the star of the show.
>> And these chiles didn't travel far. They
grew up right up the road in the town of
Hatch. The food alone is enough to make
the trip worth it. But if you ever find
yourself in Las Cruus, New Mexico, at
the top of your list has to be White
Sands National Park. 275 square miles of
gypsum dune fields. It's the largest of
its kind in the entire world. This stuff
is magnificent. You really feel a sense
of peace sitting on the dunes. And maybe
that's the draw for Las Crues. Natural
beauty and a quiet, calm pace of life.
Oh, and really great chili reenos.
[Applause]
>> Today's story getting a 10 out of 10.
Girl power meets power tools. Girl
Scouts at Minnesota's Camp Lacamaga
participated in the fourth annual camp
called Power Girls where they partnered
with professional trades women to break
down barriers and build a brand new mini
golf course from the ground up. The
annual camp aims to break stereotypes
and give girls some valuable firsthand
experience with the trades. The girls
not only learned how to handle some
serious power tools, they also learned
the value of planning, perseverance, and
that with the right mindset, anything is
possible.
>> All women. Like there's only probably
one male in here. So that shows that
women can power anything. It's kind of
really scary cuz you can take a risk
that you wouldn't really like usually
do. It like really shows that any gender
could do anything and that
we're all powerful and we can all do
something that's out of our comfort
zone.
>> All right, superstars. Time for some
shout outs now. This one goes to Miss
Guza, Miss Lone, Miss Holiday, and Mr.
Crier from Alma Middle School in Alma,
New Mexico. Your classes handk knit this
hat. Hatastic. You put a the cap in
captivating. Can't wait to rock this all
fall. And from our YouTube subscribers
in our comment section, John W. Moore
Middle School in Florence, South
Carolina. Rise up. Thank you for
watching us each day. All right, I have
an important announcement from all of us
here at CNN 10 headquarters, a new
simplified website, CNN10.com.
So, if you have our old address
bookmarked, it's slightly different. Be
sure to update it to simply CNN10.com.
And of course, you can always catch us
on YouTube. Happy Friday Eve, everyone.
We'll see you right back here tomorrow.
I'm Ky Wire and we are CNN 10.