Hello, sunshine and rise up.
I'm Koi Weier, host of CNN 10, the best 10 minutes in news.
Many of you here for the first day of school, and I am pumped that your teacher gives us the honor and privilege to help you get caught up with some of the top news stories from around the world.
No opinion, no slant.
I simply tell you the what, letting you decide what to think.
and we have some fun on this show too.
So, without further ado, let's go.
For the first time, we held CNN 10 Summer Fridays, 10 episodes over the past 10 weeks.
You can catch them on our website or CNN 10 YouTube channel, which some of you recently helped push us to 1 million subscribers.
I'm going to bring you up to speed on three of the biggest headlines from this summer with updates on where they stand now.
First up, June 6th, protests rocked the city of Los Angeles after Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security detained hundreds of people in Southern California.
Many protesters expressed their concerns peacefully.
Some became violent toward law enforcement and destructive to public and private property.
That prompted hundreds of arrests by LA police and a curfew.
Then the White House deployed deployed thousands of National Guard troops and U .S. Marines to Southern California.
U .S. President Donald Trump saying that local police officers did not have the protests under control.
The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, said that the National Guard and Marines only escalated the situation, riling up protesters further.
By mid -July, they scaled back.
Today, only a fraction of the deployed troops remain in the area.
Next up, Israel launched an unprecedented offensive attack against Iran on June 13th, using heavy airstrikes to target Iran's nuclear program and its military leaders.
Iran insisted its nuclear program is peaceful and retaliated by launching ballistic missiles at Israel.
The two countries continued to trade strikes.
Two weeks into the conflict, on June 21st, President Donald Trump announced that the U .S. struck three nuclear sites in Iran.
Iranians are definitely much closer than they were five five or 10 years ago.
And it is certainly true that they've gotten a lot closer to deploying a weapon of this type than they were even a year or two ago.
The president called the operation, quote, one of the most successful military strikes in history, unquote.
A U .S. intelligence assessment, on the other hand, determined the bombs likely only set Iran's nuclear program back by several months.
Iran retaliated by launching missiles at the largest U .S. military base in the region.
Most of those missiles were intercepted, and shortly after, the White House announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran.
This conflict with Iran took place against the backdrop of Israel's ongoing conflict in Gaza.
Ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas have stalled, and there is a humanitarian crisis in the enclave, including a food shortage, causing many to fear potential starvation.
Finally, catastrophic flooding devastated a region in central Texas, especially on July 4th.
More than an entire summer's worth of rain fell in some parts of the state in just a matter of hours.
Summer camps along the river were hit hard as the river swelled.
Camp counselors guiding hundreds of young campers to higher ground in the middle of the night to safety.
It was pretty traumatic.
I mean, yeah, you have a lot of kids.
They're having probably the worst day of their life.
They're missing friends.
They're missing loved ones.
I was really just trying to comfort them and let them know like, hey, like, I don't know where your friends may be right now, but my only objective is to get you guys out of here and get you guys to safety.
At least 133 people, though, died.
Some remain missing.
Emergency alerts were delivered to mobile devices to warn people.
Many say they did not receive warnings until after the flooding reached its peak.
Now officials are looking at ways to help prevent such tragedies from occurring in the future.
Now to a big surprise for thousands of young young Catholics at the Vatican.
They traveled to Rome for the 2025 Youth Jubilee.
And the first ever American Pope, Pope Leo, unexpectedly passed through St. Peter's Square in the Popemobile.
He was on his way to say mass for Catholic influencers and, quote, digital missionaries at St. Peter's Basilica.
CNN spoke to some of the American teens who'd traveled there to see Pope Leo in person.
Just to have someone from our country really does mean a lot to us that we We have someone to connect to, someone who's relatable.
And he knows what America is going through and what we have right now.
So it's nice to know that we have someone close to home and someone to connect that's relatable.
And what would you say to Pope Leo if you got a chance to meet him?
I would say, when is everybody coming to Chicago?
More than 500 ,000 young Catholics came to Rome for the celebrations.
Pop quiz, hot shot.
What was the first vegetable to be grown in outer space?
Space? Spinach? Potato?
Broccoli or carrot?
You say potato, I say Correcto!
In October 1995 NASA and the University of Wisconsin grew the very first potato on the space shuttle Columbia using hydroponics with the goal of feeding astronauts on long space voyages and eventually feeding future space colonies.
colonies. Ever hear those famous lyrics, you like potato, I like potato, you like tomato, I like tomato?
Turns out those two foods may be way more connected than just a classic Ella Fitzgerald song.
A team of biologists and genomic scientists have discovered where potatoes come from, tracing its origins to a chance encounter with a tomato millions of years ago.
No wonder french fries and ketchup are so good.
CNN's Ashley Strickland has today's Did You Know.
Did you Did you know that potato's origins began with tomatoes?
This interspecies love story occurred about nine million years ago, according to research published in the journal Cell.
The humble potato is the result of an ancient genetic mashup between a wild tomato and a tuber -less plant called E.
tuberosum in South America.
And it was only when those two are together that you get this tuber creation.
This surprise hybrid inherited the perfect combo, a gene from the tomato that tells it when to make tubers, a plant part that stores nutrients, nutrients, and one from E.
tuberosum that tells it how.
The result? A brand new plant that could grow underground food, survive cold climates, and reproduce without seeds, perfect for life in the Andes Mountains where potatoes were first domesticated some seven to ten thousand years ago.
That evolutionary jackpot led to the more than one hundred wild potato species that we know today, and eventually to the fries on your plate, with a side of tomato DNA.
Everybody says, well, potatoes and tomatoes have nothing to do with one another.
But actually, if you look at the plants themselves, you can start to see lots and lots of similarities.
Now we know why potatoes and tomatoes go so well together.
The goat of the pool, Katie Ledecky, just won her seventh world title in the Women's 800 meter freestyle on Saturday.
Longest streak by any swimmer ever in any event at the World Championships.
I got to chat with Katie before she hopped on that plane to Singapore, and I picked her brain about how she prepares for such high -stakes moments.
Check it out. Every day that I'm in the water at practice, I'm visualizing racing situations that I'm in, or I'm just thinking about my goals, my times, my paces, my technique, all the different things that I need to be thinking about and being diligent about.
As you know, I asked my CNN 10 viewers to submit some questions for you, and they really brought it.
So some viewer questions.
Mr. Tarik is at Cesar E.
Chavez High School in Delano, California.
Ask, what helps you stay motivated to continue with your passion, despite any hardships you might face?
I think the goals that I set for myself always keep me motivated.
You know that there are going to be roadblocks here and there.
And even within a week, not every day is going to be perfect.
Not every day is going to be 100 % or your best workout every day.
And so I think when I have that kind of a day, I tell myself and my coach tells me to to just turn the page.
Today's story getting a 10 out of 10.
We are dribbling over to Des Moines, Iowa.
WNBA superstar Kaitlyn Clark spreading some back -to -school love.
Clark, used to captivating crowds with her three -point prowess, pulled up to McCombs Middle School in her hometown of Des Moines and slam -dunked on them a plethora of P .E.
equipment, equipment, school supplies, bountiful backpacks, even built a brand new basketball court.
All thanks to our Kaitlyn Clark Foundation.
It's always fun for myself to come back here and be in Des Moines.
Obviously, this place means so much to me and, you know, I hope to be able to continue to come back here and do this every year.
Kaitlyn Clark proving that being a baller isn't just about buckets.
It's about building others up.
All right, superstars, for our first day of school shout outs, I want to give you a sneak peek, a little teaser, if you will, of our brand new wall of friends.
Check it out. You all have sent some incredible letters, art, photos, memorabilia, 3D printed models, and some seriously cool swag.
And this is just a fraction of it.
So this will be an ever evolving wall of friends.
We are so grateful for all the love you show the show.
And as a thank you, we're going to be adding some of these to our usual traditional shout outs to end the show.
For shout out requests, subscribe to our CNN 10 YouTube channel, put your school, city, state, teacher's name, mascot, along with a message, if you'd like, in the comment section of our most meat -recent video, and we're gonna choose schools like this.
Today's shout out goes to Mrs. Krantzer.
At the Bridgers Community Day High School in San Juan -Capistrano, California.
Rise up! Look at this incredible art you sent to me.
I mean, I think I'm gonna hang this like on the mirror of my car or something, because these are phenomenal i mean kidding me yes please ah we also have a shout out today to mr cosby at north rowan high school in spencer north carolina rise up i'm coy wire at coy wire on the socials can't wait to be curious learn and laugh with you all this school year let's do it again tomorrow shall we i'm coy wire and we are cnn10
