5 things to know for Sept. 20: Middle East, Stock market, Political scandal, Mail-in voting, Covid-19 origins

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After NASA decided to keep them in space until 2025, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams will now cast their votes in the November elections more than 200 miles above their nearest polling place. They will perform their civic duty by voting absentee from low-Earth orbit, joining multiple other astronauts who have cast ballots in the cosmos. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. The Israeli military is shifting its focus and resources to the border with Lebanon, where it sees near-daily conflict with the militant group Hezbollah. On Thursday, Israel and Hezbollah exchanged dozens of strikes. Both sides are ramping up their attacks after Israel targeted Hezbollah members with explosives hidden inside pagers and walkie-talkies this week, bringing the Middle East to the brink of a wider conflict nearly a year after the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched its October 7 assault on Israel. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Israel “crossed all the red lines” when detonating the explosions and warned that the fighting won’t stop on the Lebanese front until hostilities end in Gaza. Stocks closed at record highs Thursday after the Federal Reserve’s long-awaited interest rate cut. The Dow gained 522 points, or 1.3%, reaching a new record after passing the 42,000 level for the first time. The S&P 500 rose 1.7%, topping 5,700 for the first time, while the Nasdaq Composite added 2.5%. Tech stocks Nvidia, Meta and Apple also surged, as well as shares of Tesla. On Wednesday, the Fed cut rates by half a point, bringing rates down from a 23-year high. Lowering borrowing rates should take pressure off companies and everyday Americans, including potential homebuyers. Analysts say housing demand will likely increase dramatically after the Fed signaled that more rate cuts could come by year’s end. Mark Robinson, the controversial and Trump-backed Republican nominee for governor of North Carolina, made a series of inflammatory comments on a pornography website more than a decade ago, in which he referred to himself as a “black NAZI!” and expressed support for reinstating slavery, a CNN KFile investigation found. Robinson listed his full name on his profile, as well as an email address he used on numerous websites across the internet for decades. Robinson denied making the lewd comments and vowed to stay in the race. The scandal could impact the presidential race: former President Donald Trump won the Tar Heel state in 2020 by about 74,000 votes out of some 5.4 million cast, and Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign and Democrats are making an aggressive play to flip the state. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy pledged that the US Postal Service will undertake “heroic efforts” to deliver all mail-in ballots on time this year and urged people to put their ballots in the mail at least one week before Election Day on November 5. The USPS will work “around the clock” and implement “extraordinary measures” to ensure the timely delivery of mail-in voting, DeJoy said Thursday. His comments came after a bipartisan group of election officials raised concerns about the delivery of mail-in ballots and as Trump resurrects debunked false claims about supposed fraud with mail-in voting. Voter fraud is extremely rare in US elections, according to studies from liberal and conservative groups. However, Trump’s attacks on the practice have made it much less popular among Republican voters.