[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. [music]