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CNN 10
Biden Meets With Families of Victims of New Orleans Attack; What Is The Debt Ceiling?; How Carbon Robotics Built the World`s First AI-Powered LaserWeeder. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired January 07, 2025 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to CNN 10, your quick 10 minutes of news where I simply tell you the what, letting you decide
what to think. I`m Coy Wire.
Remember to submit your vocabulary words for the first #YourWordWednesday of 2025. Put your unique word and definition in the comment section of my
most recent post @coywire on social. We`re going to choose a winner to work into tomorrow`s show with a shout out. So put your school, city, state name
in there as well.
All right, let`s fuel our minds. Your news starts now. We start first in New Orleans where U.S. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden
traveled on Monday. The Bidens visited with some families of the 14 people who were killed last week during the New Year`s Day terror attack. The
Bidens attended an interfaith vigil with local clergy, law enforcement, and community members.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell and Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry also met with the president to discuss security efforts in the city. In times of
national tragedies like this one, Americans often look to the president for reassurance. And in modern times, the president has publicly taken on the
role of consoler-in-chief.
It`s a role President Biden has become known for, shaping much of his political identity around empathy and his lifetime struggles with loss.
Other presidents too have led the nation after difficult events, like when Ronald Reagan consoled Americans after the Space Shuttle Challenger
exploded in 1986 just after launching from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral.
Now to a major fiscal deadline looming over the U.S. government after the nation`s debt ceiling was reinstated at the very beginning of this year.
Reminder, the debt ceiling is the limit on the amount of money the U.S. federal government can borrow to pay its bills. And those bills will be
coming due pretty soon, around mid-January.
When the U.S. hits the debt limit, it can`t borrow anymore. That`s when the Treasury Department will have to start taking extraordinary measures to
prevent a default. And those funds can last a few months. This has ramped up tensions between GOP lawmakers and President-elect Donald Trump, who is
demanding Congress deals with the limit before he takes office on January 20th.
CNN`s Vanessa Yurkevich breaks down the details of the debt limit, showing us why it`s become such a politically charged topic.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): Well, I think President Trump and I are in agreement that I don`t even know why we continue to have the debt limit
drama.
JOE BIDEN, (D) U.S. PRESIDENT: A permanent repeal of the debt ceiling? What do you mean? I mean just say we don`t have a debt limit?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No debt limit.
BIDEN: No, that`d be irresponsible.
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Ah, the debt ceiling. The eternal Washington food fight. So what is it and why is it so contentious?
The debt ceiling is the legal limit set by Congress on how much money America can borrow. Because the U.S. spends more than it takes in, it
borrows to make up the difference. The debt ceiling caps how much.
The problem is, it`s not enough. So, every once in a while Congress needs to raise it. If it doesn`t, the Treasury Department won`t be able to pay
all the country`s bills in full and on time.
Now the Treasury does have a little wiggle room before it gets to that point, what it calls extraordinary measures to move money around. But
eventually, the accounting tricks run out and there`s no more avoiding the debt ceiling. That`s when the fireworks usually break out.
REP. MIKE JOHNSON, (R-LA) SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I want you all to remember that it was just last spring that the same Democrats berated Republicans
and said that it was irresponsible to hold the debt limit, the debt ceiling hostage. What changed?
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): The problem here is that they`re asking only to get rid of the debt ceiling for a short period of time to allow them to do
a massive new tax cut for billionaires and millionaires.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): There are some Republicans who`ve never voted to raise the debt limit and never will.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): Now, many say raising the debt ceiling is just a license to spend more money and grow the debt. But it`s not really. Raising
the debt ceiling just lets Treasury pay the bills America already owes.
REP. MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): It`s about prior debts incurred. And obviously we have to pay our debts just as every American has to pay down their credit
card.
YURKEVICH: If Congress really wants to clamp down on debt, it has to do it a lot earlier, like before passing spending bills or tax cuts, both of
which can add to deficits. Failing to raise the debt ceiling won`t keep a lid on debt. It just risks the U.S. defaulting on its obligations,
something that could forever stain America`s global reputation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Pop quiz, hot shot. Edaphology is the study of what natural material and how it affects plants, other organisms, and its use by people for
agricultural needs?
Water, soil, rocks or sunlight.
If you said soil, yes sir. The scientists who study soil health for growing plants are called edaphologists.
Now to laser shooting robots. Have you heard about this AI technology that just might become a game changer for farmers as they look to tackle one of
their biggest problems, weeds?
With farms looking to replace toxic herbicides with sustainable practices, one company has developed a Star Wars-like machine that zaps weeds with
lasers like an Imperial Stormtrooper. They say it`s eco-friendly. But with laser blasters costing upwards of a million dollars, how many already
struggling farmers could actually use this force to help them turn a profit? Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVE GILL, GILL`S ONIONS OWNER: I love onions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Meet Steve Gill. He grows onions in California. And one of the worst enemies on his farm are weeds.
GILL: They`re sucking up the same fertilizer that the onions are using. And if they get out of control, sometimes if it does happen, you can lose a
field to weeds.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the days of spraying herbicides as a form of weed control could be numbered.
PAUL MIKESELL, CARBON ROBOTICS CEO: Weeds are adapting. In the long run, you`re going to get a bunch of weeds that you can`t even spray because
they`ve become resistant to the chemical tools that we have available.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Enter the LaserWeeder, designed by the company Carbon Robotics. The company says the LaserWeeder can kill up to 200,000 weeds per
hour. It does it in an automated and chemical-free way, by zapping the weeds with photon lasers equipped with tracking cameras.
MIKESELL: What we`re doing is finding and targeting the thing called the meristem. What happens is it rips apart the cell walls of the plant
starting in the meristem. Once you destroy those cell walls and all that stuff leaks all over the place, the plant is not able to grow anymore.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Patented vision recognition software identifies what`s a weed and what`s not, and targets the weeds with sub-millimeter accuracy.
Because it`s powered by AI, the LaserWeeder is constantly learning how to improve.
MIKESELL: All of these machines are uploading images from all over the world and then we`re training new AIs and redeploying them to all those
machines.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And because the fields aren`t being sprayed with as many chemicals, the soil becomes healthier, which could help farmers grow
those bigger and tastier vegetables we all crave.
GILL: Sustainable farming is the direction that we have to go to get better crops. Every little piece of technology that we use to make the crop better
benefits the consumer.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: Today`s story, getting a 10 out of 10, a boat for a buck. Can you believe this boat cost just $1? But before you celebrate thinking you can
snag this steal of a deal, check the fine print.
The boat is stuck on a beach and getting it back in the water will cost a pretty penny. CNN`s Jeremy Roth shows us how one captain found his sailboat
in low tide and is now feeling the peer pressure to get it sold.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sailboat stuck? Buy it for a buck. That`s more or less the deal in Florida from a sailboat captain whose
vessel ran aground in New Smyrna Beach. Following an attempted voyage cut short by rough surf, Captain Allan Askar`s boat is now marooned and needs
to be removed within 30 days. So he posted on Craigslist offering the vessel for just $1 to anyone willing to remove it.
CAPTAIN ALLAN ASKAR: I have to talk to my wife to see if we`re in the market for a sailboat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a dollar.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`ll pay too.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where is he at?
ROTH: But before interested parties start counting their pennies, Askar says there is a costly catch to this seemingly too-good-to-be-true deal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It will be operation by land at this point, and it will cost like $20,000 altogether.
ROTH: Getting a sailboat for a dollar may be priceless, but getting it removed from the soggy sand is pretty pricey.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE: OK, so what if nobody buys it? Critical thinking exercise for all of you creative minds out there. If you`re the mayor of New Smyrna Beach,
Florida, and nobody buys the boat and moves it, what would you suggest the city do with the abandoned boat?
All right, remember to send those vocabulary words to @coywire on social media for tomorrow`s #YourWordWednesday so we can show you some love on the
show.
Like the Stingers of Sonoran Trails Middle School in Phoenix, Arizona, one of my favorite places on the planet. Rise up. Make it a terrific Tuesday,
y`all, and I`ll see you tomorrow.
END
