5 things to know for Sept. 12: SpaceX, Tropical Storm Francine, Debate reaction, Ukraine, Deli meat recall
CNN
CNN’s 5 Things brings you the news you need to know every morning.
Good news for American consumers: Inflation is loosening its grip on some commonly purchased products and services. New data shows that grocery prices are rising at a pace of 0.9% annually, the lowest rate since the middle of 2021. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. A four-person crew on a private mission aboard a SpaceX capsule will soon attempt to carry out the world’s first commercial spacewalk. It could be the first extravehicular activity ever completed by non-government astronauts. All four Polaris crew members will be exposed to the vacuum of space, but only Jared Isaacman, billionaire tech CEO, and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis will exit the SpaceX capsule for about 20 minutes. Crewmates Scott “Kidd” Poteet and Anna Menon will stay inside the capsule. Two lines of oxygen are helping the crew stay safe but their spacesuits do not include a Primary Life Support System, or PLSS, which is essentially a backpack that allows NASA astronauts to float more freely through space to carry out complex tasks. Francine quickly weakened to a tropical storm Wednesday just hours after making landfall in Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane, pelting the state with flooding rain and leaving nearly 400,000 homes and businesses without power. A flash flood emergency — the highest flood threat — was briefly in place for New Orleans and the surrounding area, where up to 8 inches of rain has fallen. Though it will continue to lose strength as it pushes inland, the storm is still capable of inflicting dangerous storm surge, floods and tornadoes. Airlines canceled all flights out of Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport on Wednesday and some additional cancellations were made earlier today. Voters and lawmakers are reacting to the debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump as the countdown continues to Election Day on November 5. Registered voters who watched the debate broadly agreed Harris outperformed Trump, according to CNN’s flash poll, but the Harris campaign is emphatic that the debate did not change the trajectory of the tight contest. Trump has since launched an attack on ABC News, claiming the debate was “rigged” and faulting moderators who live fact-checked him on air. Some House Republicans defended Trump’s performance but multiple Trump allies described what happened Tuesday night as a “missed opportunity.” Trump is now weighing a rematch after Harris’ team called for a second face-off in October. A chorus of Democrats is urging President Joe Biden to loosen the restrictions on Ukraine’s use of US-provided weapons to strike deep inside Russia. Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen on Wednesday became the latest senior lawmaker to call for the restrictions to be lifted. Democratic Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin also released a statement calling for the restrictions to be eased in light of “Vladimir Putin’s relentless attacks on Ukrainian civilians and infrastructure.” The Ukrainian government has repeatedly made the appeal but the Biden administration has expressed concern about the potential for escalation. A US official told CNN this week that US intelligence shows that Russia has moved a number of assets outside of the reach of long-range strikes.
Four days after Donald Trump’s inauguration, Elon Musk’s top lieutenants at the Treasury Department asked its acting secretary, a career civil servant, to immediately shut off all USAID payments using the department’s own ultra-sensitive payment processing system.
CNN’s 5 Things AM brings you the news you need to know every morning
Security for the Super Bowl in New Orleans will feature more boots on the ground, more tech and more intelligence – spearheaded by a federal official who grew up 40 miles from where kickoff will take place.
The Trump administration’s rapid moves to dismantle the US Agency for International Development have left thousands of workers scrambling to figure out what comes next and scores of those posted in dangerous hotspots around the world afraid for their safety.
President Donald Trump’s bid to remake the federal government is already affecting some vulnerable populations in the United States, according to nonprofits and health care providers who are grappling with delays in federal funding, new rules and changed guidance.
President Trump is seeking to end birthright citizenship in the United States. What is it, which other countries apply the policy and who would be affected by the order?
Panama denied a claim made by the State Department on Wednesday that the Central American nation had agreed to no longer charge fees for US government ships to transit the country’s famous canal.
The one-time Georgia prosecutor accused of using her office to impede the investigation into Ahmaud Arbery’s killers is set to stand trial more than four years after the Black 26-year-old’s death fueled nationwide protests over racial injustice.
Eligible federal workers must decide by 11:59 pm ET on Thursday whether to take the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer, which will allow them to leave their jobs but be paid through the end of September.
Two Treasury Department employees affiliated with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency will keep limited access to the highly sensitive payment system within the agency, following emergency court proceedings Wednesday that arose out of privacy concerns about DOGE’s access to the system.
The CIA has sent the White House an unclassified email listing all new hires that have been with the agency for two years or less in an effort to comply with an executive order to downsize the federal workforce, according to three sources familiar with the matter – a deeply unorthodox move that could potentially expose the identities of those officers to foreign government hackers.
After nearly three weeks in the minority, Democrats have finally settled on a target to rally against: Elon Musk.
The Office of Personnel Management’s chief financial officer, who manages more than $1 trillion in funds, was pushed out this week, two sources with knowledge of the situation told CNN.