[music] What's up, sunshine?

I'm Koi Wire.

This is CNN 10.

10 minutes to get curious, get informed, and maybe learn something today that makes us say, "I did not know that." Hope you had an awesome holiday weekend.

I enjoyed meeting some of you in Morgantown, West Virginia.

All right, we have buried Viking treasures today.

Cars racing without drivers.

Let's rise up and get you your news.

We start though with a study released last month that has put CTE and football back under the microscope.

And as a former NFL player myself, this story is alarming.

Researchers looked at 878 former NFL players who died from a variety of causes between 2016 and 2021 and found that at least one in four had CTE, the degenerative brain disease associated with repeated head impacts.

But this headline needs context.

Only 235 of those players had their brains donated to science by their family members and 215 of those had CTE.

The key distinction here, families who noticed symptoms of CTE before their deaths may have been more likely to donate their brains for research.

So, this study does not tell us that one in four NFL players will develop CTE.

It does tell us that there's still a lot we need to learn.

I spoke with our Dr.

Sanjay Gupta and our Andy Scholes about what these findings might really mean.

That's a reality for former NFL players.

You get worried, you get concerned, you think, I feel fine now, but what am I going to feel like 20 years from now?

>> I should point out as well, you know, when you talk about 2016 to 2021, so that's when they were looking at these brains.

What that basically means is these were players who were probably playing in the late 80s and and 90s.

Okay, so you know, 40 years ago, >> a lot has changed.

>> A lot has changed.

And I think, you know, that that's one of the things I think about a lot just reporting on the story for so long is what are the changes that have occurred and what impact have they made.

One of the things I think we all talked about last year was the kickoff rule.

>> So [clears throat] players can't move until the ball actually is in play in some way.

>> If you look at the statistics that that has reduced concussions by about 43%.

>> That single rule.

So obviously over the last 40 years there's been a lot more than than that rule, but I think it's fundamentally a safer game, probably even safer uh when you were playing versus in the late ' 80s and 90s.

>> Absolutely.

There have been 50 plus rule changes just over the past two decades.

One of them is the kickoff rule.

And in 2024, the NFL had fewer concussions across practices, games, all that.

That was an all-time low.

So these are encouraging signs.

>> I have three boys, and this is something I've wrestled with, you know, over the last few years.

We played flag football through fifth grade for my oldest, but there was no flag football available in our area really once you get to sixth grade.

>> And he wanted to try tackle.

I'm aware of all these studies and what's been found over the last few years.

So, I'm like hyper sensitive to it.

He really wanted to try it.

So, you know, I I gave in and I I said, "Okay, we're going to do it.

You're going to wear a guardian cap to every practice to try to help reduce the risk even more." But even then, um, I'm very hesitant about it.

I am concerned, Sanjay, and every time one of these new studies comes out, I'm like, did I make the wrong decision?

Should I have just wrote out flag football and then maybe only gone to high school?

I mean, what do you think?

I mean, what can I what what give me some advice here?

>> Well, I'll tell you, I I have a this is a big topic of discussion in the in the neurosurgery and neurology community, and I have a lot of colleagues of mine who have sons that are around your son's age, and they let their sons play football.

>> So, they, you know, they they're looking at all the same data.

I I do think as as Coy was saying, it is a fundamentally safer game now.

I think there's a couple things that sort of come to mind.

One is that um everyone pays attention to concussions, but I think if you look at what's really driving some of the problems, it's probably these subconcussive hits as well.

>> And if you look at the data, most of those are occurring during practice.

There's a lot of rewards to playing a a team sport like that.

I mean I mean all the things it's done for your life.

>> My goodness.

Football is the greatest teacher of my life and not just for myself but for being a good teammate in any walk of life.

You know, I I the lessons you learn through sport are applicable for the rest of your life.

You learn about uh you know, working towards a common goal with people who look, sound, and act differently than you.

I want to put guard rails on my kids' dreams, not a wall in front of them, >> right?

And so education is key, knowledge, information, the continued studies, funding for more research.

Um, that's that's huge.

And you know, maybe someday NFL these lessons we're learning through these very sad stories, sometimes tragic stories about former NFL players might help make society at large better because we learned a little something about our brains, about our bodies, and how we can be as healthy as we can be.

Now to Nepal where amid almost unimaginable destruction, two remarkable rescues have given families a reason to keep hoping.

Over the weekend, two people were pulled alive from the devastation 10 full days after those flash floods.

On Saturday, rescuers heard voices coming from beneath the debris.

The first one took place at this hydro power tunnel.

Around 900 workers are missing at various hydro power projects that run along the Trishuli River.

This work site is nearly 700 feet deep.

The man was wearing a Power China uniform, a state-backed energy firm.

He was flown to a hospital in Nepal's capital, Catmandeue, for treatment.

And that very same day, just downstream, rescuers heard another voice.

A woman in her 60s was trapped in her home on the fourth floor of this building.

Video from Nepal's military shows rescuers and volunteers pulling her through the wreckage before she too was taken to the hospital.

As of this taping, at least 1300 people have died.

Thousands are still missing, but this weekend's rescues are a powerful reminder there can still be hope.

10sec trivia.

Which of these is actually a myth about Viking warriors?

They used shields, fought with axes, worehorned helmets in battle, or used swords.

If you said three, you dehorned a thousand-year-old myth.

Archaeologists have found virtually no evidence that Viking warriors wore horned helmets into battle.

That image became popular centuries later, especially through 19th century art and theater.

One Danish homeowner went out to do some yard work, but he ended up striking silver instead.

A lot of it.

The man was digging in his garden to build a new terrace, but when he came across an ancient treasure instead, it had 700 pieces of silver, weighing 41 lbs.

Danish experts say it's the largest Viking age silver horde ever found in Denmark.

And here's your knowledge bomb.

Vikings didn't necessarily need coins with a specific value stamped on them.

Silver itself could be money.

Pieces could be weighed and exchanged for goods.

A system sometimes called hacks.

So, this buried stash was essentially a thousand-year-old savings account.

Our next story brings us to the world of racing.

All gas, no brakes, and no humans behind the wheel.

In the first international racing league powered entirely by artificial intelligence, fully autonomous race cars took to the track in Italy to put their tech to the test.

Our Ivana Scola was there to catch the action.

>> It's like Formula 1, but without human drivers.

[music] Instead, the cars are entirely driven by AI.

I'm in Emila, Italy to watch the A2RL, a motorsport competition where fully autonomous cars go headto-head.

The cars have no cockpits or steering wheels, just supercomputers, GPS, radar, and optical cameras.

>> The actual weight, uh, it's a fun fact, is quite similar to a human driver.

So, yeah, the weight of the car is quite similar to a real one.

Engineering teams say they've spent months writing custom code for the cars.

And on race day, they press go and hope for the best.

Each team races identical Super Formula cars.

The only thing that sets them apart is the coding.

This is the third year of the competition, but the first time that the race has been held abroad outside of Abu Dhabi.

Their Imila circuit, famous with Formula 1 fans, is known to be a challenging one.

While the autonomous taxis that are common in American [clears throat] cities prioritize safety and predictability, these autonomous race cars are at the opposite end.

Optimized for speed and split-second maneuvers, the cars are programmed not to collide into each other, but the technology isn't perfect yet.

The winning team this year was Kinetas, which started out as a rookie team and now has come first.

>> It's overwhelming.

It's uh I am still processing that uh all the emotions.

This morning, like before the race start, I was telling myself, it's not how you start, but it's how you finish.

Today's story getting a 10 out of 10.

Proof that sometimes a huge dream starts with one tiny brick.

Lifelong LEGO fanatic Alex Sulli has quite the collection.

He's conquered sets ranging from log cabins to the Millennium Falcon.

But over the years, he's moved from building sets to designing his own.

Using LEGO's online design tools, Alex has dreamed up nearly 50 different creations.

And after years of submissions, one of them was chosen to become an official set.

LEGO designers helped Alex perfect the set, and it officially hit shelves last month.

The seaside scene even has an Easter egg, a Lego version of Alex himself.

Alex says putting it together for the first time was surreal.

Nearly 50 ideas, years of trying, eventually one yes.

Proof that rejection doesn't always mean stop.

Sometimes it means keep building.

Now, shout out time.

And this one goes to Mrs.

Salvent at Bumpus Middle School in Hoover, Alabama.

Thank you for subscribing to our YouTube channel, dropping the comments, and being part of the CNN 10 family.

And this shout out goes to Mr.

Carlton at the Northwest Juvenile Detention Center in Winchester, Virginia.

Look at this.

An incredible handknited banner.

And this is some serious talent.

Also, Mr.

Carlton, after 39 years, congratulations on your retirement.

Shine on sunshine.

Keep learning, keep building, keep becoming.

I'm Ky Wire and we are CNN 10.

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