What's up, sunshine?
Time to rise up and fuel our minds.
I'm Koi Weier with your 10 minutes of news for Monday, September 22nd.
Hope you had an awesome weekend and that you're all geared up for the first official day of fall today, the autumnal equinox.
Bust out the long sleeves, the pumpkin spice.
I started decorating for Halloween yesterday.
Hit me up at KoiWire on the socials if you have any recommendations for a good Halloween costume for your boy this year.
Without further ado, let's get to your news.
We begin in Eastern Europe, where the NATO nations have decided to flex their military muscles following repeated Russian violations of Alliance airspace.
British fighter jets patrolled the skies over Poland this weekend, after more than a dozen Russian drones crossed into the country earlier this month.
And NATO forces also intercepted three Russian fighter jets that crossed into Estonian airspace, a violation the country has called quote unprecedentedly brazen unquote.
These moves are all part of NATO's Operation Eastern Sentry, which is bolstering the alliance's military presence along its eastern flank with Russia to deter further provocations.
Meanwhile, NATO member state Lithuania is trying to bolster its own drone forces to deter Russian threats.
That plan includes some very young future defenders of the country and a new facility that is just a short drive from the Russian border.
Our Sebastian Shukla explains.
A new school in Lithuania is taking an unusual approach to boost the country's defense.
Just 20 kilometres or 12 miles from Russia's Kaliningrad enclave, in a school, the Baltic Nations Defence Ministry is teaching children as young as 10 how to assemble and operate drones.
We are not preparing children for war, as many people see and think.
We are preparing children for a better, happier life, assuring ourselves.
This is just one of nine centres set to open across Lithuania, teaching students and adults how to operate FPV first-person drones.
Kids practice virtual flights on computers and fly small drones in training rooms.
It's all about building the military defensive capabilities and you know that Lithuania is actually taking very seriously, living in the, you know, in a neighborhood with Russia and Belarus.
After two Russian drones crashed in Lithuania after crossing from Belarus this summer, the country asked the NATO alliance to strengthen air defenses.
And last Friday, NATO announced plans to bolster Europe's eastern flank after a series of Russian drones entered, this time from Polish airspace.
With more drone schools on the way, Lithuania is already preparing for the next generation of defense.
Now to a big story making headlines in the world of women's sports.
The WNBA is breaking records with soaring attendance and a nearly 200% surge in franchise values.
But as stars like Kaitlyn Clark and Nafisa Collier shine, players say their share of revenue falls short of other pro sports.
Our Boris Sanchez takes a closer look at their shot for fair pay.
In the past year, the WNBA's 13 franchises have seen record-breaking growth, increasing in value by over 180, according to Sportico.
You can chart the league's growing popularity, not only in financial gain but in name recognition too.
Stars like Kaitlyn Clark and Angel Reese becoming household names as well as a spike in celebrity endorsements and attendance.
In 2024, Kaitlyn Clark's team, the Indiana Fever, averaged more than 17,000 fans a game.
That's more than six NBA teams and three MLB teams in the same span.
The uptick in popularity corresponds with a 22 billion TV rights deal the WNBA signed for 2026 that covers the next 11 years, which ESPN reports will increase the league's annual revenue by about 200 million a season.
Yet, WNBA players say they're not being paid what they're owed.
Right now they get less than 10 of the league's total revenue, a strikingly slim margin when compared to other pro sports leagues, in which athletes typically split revenues about 50-50.
That's almost 40 greater than WNBA players, and why some of the league's stars say they're due a higher percentage of revenue, though they're not looking for dollar-for-dollar parity.
Keep in mind, despite historic gains since it was founded in 1996, the league has always operated at a loss, annually losing tens of millions of dollars, even with large cash boosts coming from the NBA, which is the majority stakeholder.
But as the league is poised to keep growing, adding two more teams next season, expanding to 18 total by 2030, The question remains what will the league do with the new revenue?
Are we headed for a lockout?
Or can the owners and players agree to new terms that align with what they feel they're owed?
Pop quiz hot shot.
Which U.S. state is home to the most corn farms?
Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, or Maine?
If you said Iowa, I owe you a congratulations.
Iowa produced about 2.63 billion bushels of corn in 2024.
Most of it was used to produce animal feed and fuel.
A family farm in Maine has just been voted the best corn maze in the US.
Truagy Family Orchards tops the list in USA Today's 10 Best Readers Choice Awards for their fourth year in a row.
Amazing.
From morning till dusk, families meander their way through 60,000 corn plants standing 10 feet tall.
Don't try to tell secrets in there.
Too many years.
The whale of a tail design pays tribute to Maine's fishing industry.
And the Truagy family offered free admission to anyone working in commercial fishing.
Their farm also placed second this year for best pumpkin patch.
Meta has introduced a new set of smart glasses, in partnership with Ray-Ban, which put the power of AI right in front of your eye.
The model named Display pushes users to ditch the smartphone and interact more with their surroundings.
Our Claire Duffy was one of the first people to try them out.
Listen.
Ah, whoa.
It's crazy.
These are the new Meta Ray-Ban display glasses, the next generation of AI-powered wearables.
Meta is making a bet that, with these glasses, users won't need to spend so much time looking down at their phone.
Unlike previous versions, which you could only interact with via voice and audio, these feature a tiny display inside the lens and they come with what's called a neural wristband, so you can navigate simply with hand and finger gestures.
So what I'm seeing right now on this little display, it looks like you know the homepage of Spotify for whatever song that you're currently listening to.
So you've got the play button, the forward and backward button.
You can shuffle.
Yeah.
And then when I do the volume, I see the little volume button open up.
Cool.
They're a bit bulkier than previous versions of the Meta Ray Bands.
They still look and feel more or less like regular glasses. just slightly thicker and heavier.
People around you won't be able to see what you're seeing on the glasses display.
That's by design, so your messages or photos remain private.
It's probably going to take some getting used to for most people to interact with the world around you while seeing a little display in front of your eye.
But I was surprised by how high quality the display was.
You're going to have to take my word for it on this one, because you can only see it if you're wearing them.
And I liked that you can turn the display on and off so if you're doing focused work or walking around outside, you won't be distracted.
And I did find the neural wristband gestures intuitive to learn.
You can capture and view photos and videos.
There's live captioning, navigation, video calling.
You can ask AI about your surroundings and also view and respond to messages, all of which I tried in a mostly successful brief demo.
You may remember when Google tried to do this back in 2013 with Google Glass, but that product flopped because it was expensive, unfashionable and had limited functionality.
This is another way for Meta to get its AI technology to be a bigger part of our daily lives, and it'll test how ready the world is for more advanced wearables.
Today's story getting a 10 out of 10.
A family fishing trip turning up a fantastic fossilized find.
The Coleman family loves hunting fossils.
It's a tradition that they've passed down through generations.
But during one family outing, 13-year-old Tala spotted something seriously strange.
I was the one that pointed it out because I was like, that rock looks a little weird.
And me and my dad went and checked it out because we thought it was just mud.
And we got up closer to it.
We were like, that's not mud.
That's something.
Tala's hunch was correct.
A local scientist identified the discovery as an incredibly rare intact fossil of a brand new species and genus of leatherback sea turtle.
It is such an absolutely extraordinarily rare occurrence to get an intact fossil leatherback shell like this.
It is beyond one in a million.
The bombshell discovery weighs more than a ton and dates back to 32 million years ago.
It was found on Creek Indian ancestral land, so members of a local tribe were able to name the find in their native language.
So it is a combination of the words wiwa and loja, which means water and turtle.
If there's one thing this story taught us, it's that you never know what you might find when you get out there and explore.
This epic find is on display at a local science museum.
And the Coleman family?
Well, they're already on the hunt for their next big dig.
All right, superstars.
Thanks to everyone who's been subscribing and commenting on our CNN 10 YouTube channel for your shout-out requests.
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Rise up.
Make it an awesome day, everyone.
I'll see you right back here tomorrow.
I'm Coy Wire and we are CNN 10.
