What's up, sunshine? I'm Coy Wire here
with your news for Thursday, March 12th.
I am so excited to bring you another
fresh episode of the best 10 minutes in
news because of you. Let's get to it. We
begin in Cuba, which is enduring a
critical energy crisis amid an ongoing
oil embargo. The embargo or government
sanctioned trade restriction was
implemented by US President Donald Trump
earlier this year. It's the latest
chapter in a long-running series of
tensions between the US and Cuban
governments dating back to the Cold War.
The move has largely cut off sources of
gasoline and fuel to the Caribbean
island nation, dramatically reducing
electricity generation, causing dayslong
power blackouts. And without
electricity, the country's economy is a
at a standstill. Cuban residents are
feeling desperate and outraged. Some
have taken to the streets to burn
garbage and bang pots in protest of the
conditions. University students in the
capital of Havana staged a sitin to
bring attention to how these blackouts
have impacted their education. Our
Patrick Ottman has more from Cuba.
>> So, this would be a pretty unremarkable
scene anywhere else in the world. A
group of students doing a sit in at a
university demanding better conditions.
Uh in Cuba, this kind of thing is just
simply not allowed. And so around us,
there's a lot of university officials,
government officials, uh people who are
quite clearly plain close police. Only
about 20ome students here. Wouldn't be a
big deal except the Cuban government
knows that in other countries when
you've had moments of tension like we
are experiencing right now, all it
needs, all you need is a spark. And so
these students uh at this moment say
that they can't study because the power
is out so often that the internet has
become so expensive and so unreliable
and and those are among the many
complaints complaints that many of the
people in on this island share at the
moment. We've seen protests uh at night
taking place. People going out with pots
and pans uh beating those pots and pans
to get the lights back on. And so that
is a situation uh that is happening
right now in Cuba. The government of
course blames
the problems here on the Trump
administration's increased sanctions on
this island, but there are people here
who feel the government has a role to
play. They can make things better. Uh,
and they're demanding those changes. For
many people, a day at the beach might
mean a dip in the sea and sand between
your toes. But for many people with
disabilities, accessing the shoreline
isn't always so simple. In Rio de
Janeiro, one project is helping to
change that at Brazil's famous Copa
Cabana Beach. Volunteers with the Beach
for All project are helping people with
disabilities experience the ocean, some
for the very first time using
specialized wheelchairs designed to roll
across sand and float in water.
Participants are guided safely into the
sea. The program launched in 2008. It
provides accessible equipment, ramps,
and trained volunteers to help
participants swim and enjoy the beach.
>> It's a free project. We're here to offer
the welcoming and receptive environment
that people with disabilities deserve to
have a complete and quality beach
experience. The program is about more
than a swim. It's about inclusion and
making sure everyone can experience the
ocean.
>> Before the accident, I lived at the
beach. And after the accident, I went a
year without the beach. The first time I
saw it, I cried. It's really good.
Really, really good.
>> Scientists are getting some welcome news
about an asteroid once thought to be on
a collision course with our moon. The
huge space rock known as Y R4 is about
the size of a 15story building and was
discovered at the end of 2024. It was
initially given a 3.1% chance of hitting
Earth. Subsequent observations ruled
that scenario out, but scientists
worried it may slam into our moon
instead, giving it roughly a 4% chance
to happen late in 2032. While that
collision wouldn't have put our planet
in danger, they feared it could impact
potential lunar bases or put
communication satellites at risk.
Astronomers didn't expect to get an
update on this path until the asteroid
came back into our field of view in
2028. But thanks to the James Web Space
Telescope, the most powerful one ever
built, they were able to catch a glimpse
earlier than expected. They've
determined that the moon is safe and YR4
will pass by at a relatively close
distance at about 14,000 mi. While that
may sound close in space terms, it's
about three and a half times longer than
the total distance of the Amazon River.
Pop quiz hot shot. What was the first
text message ever sent? Did it say who
is this? Hello, merry Christmas. or test
test.
If you said Merry Christmas, put
yourself on the nice list. It was sent
by software engineer Neil Papworth on
December 3rd, 1992 from a computer to a
mobile phone on the Vodafone network in
the United Kingdom. It was sent to
Richard Jarvis, his boss, who was
attending the Vodafone Christmas party.
If a picture is worth a thousand words,
emojis might be worth a whole vibe. I'm
a big fan of the 10 hands. Apple is
about to expand their emoji vocabulary.
According to Emojipedia, the company's
latest developer is previewing eight new
emojis, including a highly anticipated
distorted face, a cartoon style fight
cloud, and even a Bigfoot looking legend
ready to make large footprints in our
texts. Those new icons come from
Unicode's emoji 17.0 0 list approved in
September 2025 by the Unicode
Consortium. It's an organization that
standardizes characters across devices
and reviews proposals for new emojis.
Yes, this is a thing. Did you know that
emojis themselves date back to two major
Japanese telecommunications companies in
the late 1990s? The most famous set was
created by designer Sheagitaka Korita in
1999, kickstarting our emojiations.
These early symbols included icons for
weather, time, transportation, and they
had some simple face and hand
expressions as well, laying the
groundwork for the thousands of
characters we know today. Since then,
emojis have exploded into a global form
of communication. Remember in 2015 when
the laughing, crying emoji became Oxford
dictionary's word of the year? Yes, an
image, winning a word award for the
first time. The new designs are
currently in beta testing, but they
could reach our smartphones later this
spring, giving us a few more ways to say
exactly how we feel without saying a
word. Rush Hour is about to take on a
whole new look on the streets of
Washington DC. Officials unveiled the
track for the Indie Car Freedom 250
Grand Prix, the new race planned for
August in the nation's capital as part
of the grand celebrations being rolled
out for America's 250th anniversary. The
first ever street race on the National
Mall will be 1.7 mi long, featuring
seven turns around some of the country's
most iconic landmarks. Congress usually
isn't in session, and we're going to
bring throngs of Americans into our
capital city and we are going to
celebrate our birthday with a free
awesome Indie car race, 190 miles an
hour. Last time we did this 1801, we had
a horses race in the capital.
>> The Freedom 250 Grand Prix is one of
many planned events. A UFC event is also
set to be held on the south lawn of the
White House on June 14th.
Today's story getting a 10 out of 10
takes the saying give a dog a bone to a
prehistoric level. While out for a run
with his owner on a New Jersey beach,
Charlie Brown, the German shorthaired
pointer, made the discovery of a
lifetime, a pristine prehistoric fossil.
>> Charlie was chewing on the bone. Uh,
he's a dog. He He gets in trouble a lot
and he brings a lot of things back to
me. Charlie's family thought it might be
from a giant ground sloth. Talk about a
slow reveal. But dinosaur megapan Matt
decided to dig deeper using his dad's
email to reach out to a local museum for
answers. Turns out it belonged to an
ancient walrus that roam New Jerseys icy
coastlines more than 10,000 years ago.
>> This is the head of the femur, which
would fit into the hip sockets. And then
this would be kind of the knee joint
right here. The piece was put on display
at the museum, but not before Matt got
to bring it to school for a show and
tell that really had some backbone to
it. The family says the find has given
them fossil fever, and they are hoping
Charlie Brown can sniff out another
bonafide treasure.
>> So, it made me feel like I was a kid
again. It was pretty neat.
>> Thousands of people could look at it and
say, "This is really cool."
>> All right, everyone. Time for the best
part of the day. You, Mr. Leaport, at
Altuna Middle School in Altuna,
Wisconsin. Our student Molly wrote to us
to tell us how much she and her friends
enjoy your history class. Thank you for
tuning in in Altuna. And this shout out
goes to our friends at Mount Pleasant
Middle School in Mount Pleasant,
Michigan. They sent us um a friend. This
is Opie, a talking buddy who uh they use
a form of this to help designate whose
turn it is to speak during tough
discussions or even light-hearted
discussions. And yes, I can see how this
would like calm the nerves a bit, take
away some of that stress and anxiety. I
love it. Thank you so much. Thank you
for making our day. Hope you all have an
awesome one. It is almost Friday. I'm
Koi Wire and we are CNN 10.