Hello, hey, and how you doing, sunshine?
Welcome to CNN 10, your 10 minutes of news where we give you the fundamentals and bring some fun for the mentals.
I'm Coy Wire. It's August 6th, and it's Your Word Wednesday.
So listen to see if the vocabulary word you submitted helped us write today's show.
We begin in California, where a new fire, the Gifford Fire, is rapidly growing.
It's already consumed more than 72,000 acres, including parts of Los Padres National Park.
That makes it the state's largest fire this year, and currently just a small percentage is contained.
So far, three people have been injured, and evacuation orders are in effect for two counties.
Nearly 2,000 firefighters are battling the blaze as they try to save more than 870 structures currently threatened by the fire.
The smoke has reached as far as Las Vegas, I'm understanding, but they're not the only ones dealing with bad air quality.
For more of the what, the why, and what's next, let's track down our meteorologist, Derek Van Damp.
Good to see you, Derek. Good wire, my man.
Let's start in California, this Gifford Fire.
Give us some perspective how big it is. Okay, so you're a football guy, clearly, right?
So I'll put it into a football perspective for you.
There was a period there where the fire, the Gifford Fire, was actually expanding at a rate of a football field every two seconds.
So yeah, every two seconds. So it was explosive growth over the course of the weekend.
You can see it right here with the satellite as well.
So we're looking down from space. There's the Gifford Fire, and it's all because of the drought that's ongoing across Southern California, increased temperatures.
We've got low relative humidities, a lot of science terms I'm throwing at you, but this is important because these are all the factors that go into play with this type of a wildfire activity.
It's also contributing to really unhealthy air across Southern California.
So if you're in SoCal right now, it's almost suffocating outside, a thick, hazy smoke over the skies.
And guess what? Coy, this is crazy. 400 miles away in Las Vegas, they're actually breathing in some of the smoke from the Gifford Fire, which is 400 miles to the west.
Yes, and unhealthy air quality even in Vegas.
Now, I understand there are wildfires in Canada affecting U.S. cities as well.
This is crazy, Coy. So talk about fires and people being displaced from fires several thousand miles away.
This is New York City, and this area has been suffocated by wildfire smoke as well, that thick, hazy sky overhead.
Buffalo, New York, you used to play for the Bills, you know, right?
Have you ever experienced the thick, hazy skies in some of your training?
I don't remember this. Okay, so I don't know how long ago you played for them, but this is really a relatively new phenomenon.
We call it the summer of smoke. And they're experiencing it across New England, the Great Lakes, and it's all because of the wildfires that are burning out of control across northern Canada.
So Alberta, Saskatchewan, you can see there's nearly 200 out-of-control wildfires contributing to the bad air quality that we're all breathing in across the northeast and some of these major east coast cities. best quick tip for our viewers very quickly of if they're in or near these cities how to check for the air quality yeah no i well you could check online otherwise you can just hit that recirculate button on your air conditioner inside of your car because that'll help keep you breathing in excellent cleaner air as well all right speaking of cities any shout outs you want to give oh my goodness okay my high school rockford high school go rams and fire up chips central michigan university can't forget about you let's go we'll have more shout outs at the end of the show but first Pop quiz hot shot!
Japan is composed of approximately how many islands?
50, 700, 5,000, or 14,000? Japan is composed of 14,125 islands.
In 2023, the nation discovered 7,000 of them through new digital mapping.
That meant counting all naturally occurring land areas with a circumference of at least 330 feet.
Today marks a somber milestone for a moment that changed the world forever.
Exactly 80 years ago today, August 6, 1945, an atomic bomb was used for the first time in warfare.
The U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the port city of Hiroshima, Japan.
70,000 people were instantly killed. The world will note that the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.
Just days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, killing an additional 40,000-plus.
The bombings led Japan to unconditionally surrender, officially ending World War II.
But they also ushered in the Cold War, another devastating chapter in world history.
To this day, it remains the only time a country has ever used an atomic bomb in war.
Overall estimates put the death toll in Hiroshima alone at more than 200,000 people, including deaths from radiation poisoning or long-term effects like cancer.
Today, Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park stands atop the bustling commercial district. serving as a tribute to the victims and a stark reminder of the most destructive force ever created by mankind.
Next up, a story that sounds like it's straight out of a spy thriller, part of a new CNN investigation.
LinkedIn, the popular job site that has more than a billion users worldwide, features covert operatives, fake identities, and even face-masking technology.
It serves as a good reminder that not everything we see online is always what it seems.
My contract ended last week, so I'm currently looking for a new opportunity Hundreds of North Korean operatives have been using fake identities to seek remote IT jobs at American companies in a state-sponsored effort to make money for the North Korean regime and fund its military programs.
I try to listen to everyone's ideas and provide assistance when needed.
The DOJ has said that over the past couple of years, the North Koreans have quietly made their way into Fortune 500 companies, potentially putting U.S. national security at risk.
It's now gotten to the point where some experts say that it's hard to find a major company that the North Koreans have not targeted.
CNN spoke with leading experts from cybersecurity firms and reviewed dozens of open source data sets from North Korean computers to understand how the North Korean IT workers operate.
Now, let's take a look at some of these LinkedIn profiles.
This is Joe Paul. He's a suspected North Korean IT worker and looking at his profile, right away there are a couple of things that immediately set us off.
The generic Western name, the cheesy cover photo, previous work experience at Walmart or at the National University of Singapore.
These are all common experiences that the North Koreans claim to have had.
When we ran this profile photo through AI detection software, it quickly came up as AI generated.
In some cases, the whole photo isn't AI-generated, but the face has been swapped for a new one.
The original looks like this. And here's the edited version with a new face superimposed on it.
Experts have matched this exact profile to datasets that they believe originate from the computers of North Korean operatives.
These datasets include everything from their online search histories to the applications that they've downloaded, giving us fair insight into how the North Koreans pull off this scheme.
Right away, there are a couple of hints that Elias might not be the Spanish developer that he claims to be.
AstroVPN is a popular VPN service in China, where the North Koreans often base themselves.
And we also see him downloading remote working software that allows the North Koreans to remotely access their work computers, which are hosted by facilitators in the US.
Next, we see him looking up dozens of job postings, and his calendar appears to be packed with job interview invites from companies all around the world.
He's also looked up and used AI FaceSwap on multiple occasions, which explains the profile photo that we saw earlier.
And finally, there's Google Translate searches that show him translating email correspondence and job tasks from English to Korean.
Good morning, everyone. Last week, I've worked on some factoring tasks.
When you line up all of the digital breadcrumbs, the AI FaceSwap, the remote access software, the English-Korean translations, researchers say that the pattern is clear.
The man claiming to be Elias Alnok or Tiho Lanz is likely to actually be a North Korean IT worker.
Time to pause and celebrate a birthday for a beloved giant panda.
Bao Li at Washington's Smithsonian National Zoo turned four on Monday.
Staff surprised him with a cake made of frozen fruit and visitors, in person and online, watched him chow down.
Bao Li's been bamboozling us with his adorable antics since he was a tiny cub, but he's growing up so fast it's unbearable.
The celebration is part of the zoo's ongoing efforts to raise funds for panda conservation.
Today's story, getting a 10 out of 10, a man's best friend hanging 10 over the weekend.
World Dog Surfing Championships, Pacifica State Beach, California.
You've heard of Swag and Surf. How about Wagon Surf?
Canine contestants competing for the Golden Surfy Award, judged by how long they can stay on the board, whether they do some doggone tricks, and overall enthusiasm.
I grab the surfboard. She starts crying like she wants to go.
So ever since then, it's just been like, all right, you're the surfer in the family.
Congrats to the top dog, Cacao, a chocolate lab whose galvanic performance was deemed the tail wagon winner across seven different categories.
All right, superstars, did you catch today's Your Word Wednesday?
Congrats to Mr. Taylor at Autism Solutions Academy for galvanic, an adjective. meaning having an electric effect, intensely exciting, a totally galvanic word.
Well done, sir. Our shout outs today are going to East Chicago Urban Enterprise Academy.
Thank you for all of the heartfelt letters, the drawings, and origami?
Are you kidding me? Your origami got me right in the heartstrings.
It's incredible. And from our YouTube channel comment section, Mrs. Myers at Warren Central High School in Indianapolis, Indiana, rise up.
Thank you for making us part of your day.
Let's go out and make this an awesome day.
We'll do it again tomorrow. I'm Coy Wire and we are CNN 10.
