Good morning, good afternoon, good
evening, wherever you are in this world.
I'm Koi Wire. This is CNN 10. I have
your 10 minutes of news with stories
from all around the globe today. But on
this final day of the month, March 31st,
let's kick it off with this. On this
day, 137 years ago, the Eiffel Tower was
officially completed. The iconic
landmark was built as the centerpiece of
the 1889 Paris Exposition, a World's
Fair, marking the centennial anniversary
of the French Revolution. Construction
took more than 2 years. The French feat
of engineering stands more than 1,000 ft
tall and contains roughly 18,000
individual pieces of iron weighing about
7,300 tons. The tower stood as the
tallest structure in the world for more
than 40 years before being dethroned by
the Chrysler building in New York. And
get this, the tower was supposed to be
temporary. The original plan was to
dismantle it after 20 years, much to the
relief of some Parisian elites who saw
it as an eyesore. But science saved the
day. The tower proved itself to be an
indispensable asset for emerging radio
transmission technology and it's served
as a vital antenna ever since. These
days, Laam Deair or the Iron Lady
continues standing tall above the city
of lights, offering unparalleled views
to nearly 7 million visitors from around
the world each year.
>> I think it's really iconic, you know,
like when you think about Paris, you
think about that about like the Eiffel
Tower.
>> It's just a symbol of Paris.
It's a symbol. It represents France.
It's one of the prestigious monuments,
as you can see with the number of
tourists around us.
>> The tower's history is as unique as its
architecture. Did you know it was
originally painted red and it was even
briefly yellow? Or did you know that
it's taller in the summertime when hot
temperatures cause the iron to expand?
Speaking of metal, would you believe a
notorious con man once sold the tower to
scrap metal dealers, not once, but
twice. And get this, the tower even has
a unique connection to France's most
famous gift to the United States. The
Statue of Liberty. The tower's namesake
designer, Gustaf Eiffel, was also the
brains behind Liberty's intricate iron
framework. I fell out of my chair when I
learned that. From lighting up the
skyline when it first opened to going
dark for a global cause, the Eiffel
Tower is once again taking center stage,
this time by switching off its lights
for Earth Hour. In Paris, the landmark
dimmed its iconic lights, joining cities
around the world in a symbolic move to
spotlight environmental challenges.
Earth Hour began in Sydney back in 2007,
organized by the World Wildlife Fund.
What started as a local initiative has
grown into a global campaign encouraging
millions of people, businesses, and
landmarks to turn off non-essential
lights for one hour each year. This
year, the movement stretched across
continents, including Greece's iconic
Parthonon and the Acropolis, the Sagrada
Familia in Barcelona. And in Hong Kong,
nearly 4,000 buildings, including
skyscrapers along Victoria Harbor,
switched off for an hour.
10sec trivia. What is the name of the
process that heats and airates cocoa and
sugar to make chocolate? Fermentation,
coning, tempering, or refining?
If you said coning, you so smooth. It
was accidentally invented in 1879 by
Rodolfph Lint, who discovered that
mixing chocolate for a long time created
the melt-in-you texture we expect today.
Did you hear about the 12 tons of KitKat
chocolate bars that were stolen? Give me
a break. Swiss food giant Nestle says
that they were stolen from a truck
leaving its production site in Italy.
We're talking more than 400,000 candy
bars. The company reported the heist
happened earlier this week. The vehicle
and chocolate still nowhere to be found.
But listen to this. Nestle said all of
its products can be traced using a
unique batch code assigned to individual
bars. So officials say the thieves could
get caught if they try to resell the
product. A company spokesperson said,
quote, "Wilst we appreciate the
criminals exceptional taste, the fact
remains that cargo theft is an
escalating issue for businesses of all
sizes." Unquote. The good news, the
brand says there are no concerns for
consumer safety and supply is not
affected. Well, now it is time for an
encouraging update about the stranded
humpback we told you about last week.
Rescuers have been helping to free a
stranded whale off the coast of Germany
for 11 days now. And as of this taping,
they're more hopeful he will swim free.
According to one aquatic wildlife
expert, the whale, now nicknamed Timmy,
has been pushed to deeper waters where
it can hopefully swim to safety.
>> He is not stranded on the sandbank. He
is in water deep enough for him to swim
away from. And so the animal is being
left in peace for now. And we naturally
hope that he is simply gathering his
strength there and will be able to swim
away on his own and then hopefully
eventually find his way out of the
Baltic Sea.
>> Humpac whales are not native to the
Baltic Sea and conservationists say the
human influence often plays a role in
whale strandings around the world.
Plastic pollution keeps piling up every
day. About 2,000 garbage trucks worth of
plastic ends up in oceans, rivers, and
lakes around the world, according to the
UN Environment Program. Now, one company
in Wales is looking to turn the tide
with seaweed based packaging to replace
single-use plastic, showing how
something from the ocean itself could
help protect it. CNN's Leroy Aen has the
story. How do you take this seaweed and
turn it into this biodegradable
packaging and tackle the scourge of
plastics in our oceans?
I was born in Fiji in the middle of the
South Pacific where plastics in the
ocean are a huge issue. And I've always
asked myself, surely there must be an
alternative to this. And while
researching that question, I came across
this company called Plansy in Wales. So
I've decided to go check them out.
My journey begins here on the rugged
coastline of Wales.
This is where Plansy is using seaweed to
create truly biodegradable alternatives
to single-use plastics. It starts at
seaweed farms like car eore.
We'll go out to the farm and harvest the
seaweed and then bring it straight back
here and it gets spun around and the
solid seaweed gets separated from the
from the liquid. And the liquid is our
seaweed bio stimulant which is being
used in agriculture on farms
>> like fertilizer.
>> Yeah, light fertilizer. And then the
solid bit that's left over so our
byproduct is what plants will use to
make their plastic products.
>> Smells quite tasty.
>> It's lovely. You can eat this.
>> Plans then brings the seaweed to this
innovation center for processing.
>> This is where it all starts. So, the
seaweed that you've just seen at the
farm, this kind of gets dried and
chopped up and flaked. Um, and this is
where it starts in our process.
So, today we've processed around 20
kilos of of seaweed, but this should
yield in terms of the wet products.
We'll get about 40 to 50 kilos of a dry
polymer powder. They'll turn this into
film. We should have enough film to do
120,000 of these solid capsules
>> for plant. Seaweed is a natural fit.
>> So the seaweed actually lends itself
very well to material innovation. It has
very a very rich like chemical structure
has um it's full of sugars and
polysaccharides. So it lends itself very
well to bio materials. Most people don't
realize that these are made from a
synthetic polymer which is petroleum
based. Now while they do dissolve, they
don't ever really truly disappear. They
create liquid microplastics. Our film
and our polymer is a natural polymer and
it doesn't leave behind any
microplastics.
>> Plans is already working with major
brands proving this can work at scale.
So seaweed is kind of like a wonder
material. You can eat it. You can use it
as fertilizer. And now it appears you
can use it as an alternative to plastic.
The question is why aren't we using it
more?
Today's story getting a 10 out of 10 is
stirr uping something special. In the
middle of South London, between train
tracks and city streets, a riding school
is giving kids a chance to connect with
horses, many of them for the first time.
At the Ebony Horse Club in a
neighborhood in Brixton, each week about
160 kids are the main event, learning to
ride, groom, and care for horses free of
charge. Hey, it's all part of a program
focused on supporting local youth.
Teachers say it behooves the kids to
participate because riding helps build
their confidence and they learn to stay
present in the moment.
>> So when I tried it was actually great
and I had fun.
>> It's a different kind of classroom where
these young riders are learning more
than just how to stay in the saddle. All
right, superstars. Couple of shout outs
today. This first one goes to Miss
Stewart and Miss Sanchez aka Sanchez at
Fifth Street Elementary in Decar,
Georgia. They sent us these DIY
stickers. And I have to tell you, I've
been putting them on people's backs all
around the office and I don't think
they've noticed yet. That's a good
thing. Thank you for helping us spread
the love. And a very special shout out
goes to Mr. Powers at Manaste Middle and
High School in Manaste, Michigan.
Retiring after 45 years as an educator.
Your students want you to know how much
you mean to them. Think of how many
former students can say the same. Salute
to you, sir. Tomorrow is your word
Wednesday. So submit your unique
vocabulary word and definition in the
comment section of our latest post on
Instagram at CNN10, Koiwire and we will
choose a winner to work into tomorrow's
show. Make it a remarkable, marvelous,
magnificent day. I'm Koi Wire and we are
CNN 10.