5 things to know for Sept. 30: Helene’s damage, Middle East, VP debate, Chemical plant fire, SpaceX
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Port workers from Maine to Texas are threatening a major strike this week that could disrupt the flow of popular products into the US. Consumers wouldn’t necessarily feel the impacts immediately, but experts say a long port strike would eventually cause shortages of chocolate, booze and fruit, including bananas and cherries. Here’s what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and On with Your Day. The Southeastern US is grappling with widespread devastation after Helene made landfall Thursday as the strongest hurricane on record to slam into Florida’s Big Bend region and tore through multiple states, killing at least 95 people. Millions are still without power and authorities warn electricity could be a week away or longer in some areas. In the Carolinas, days of unrelenting flooding have turned roads into waterways, left many without basic necessities and strained state resources. President Joe Biden will visit some of the affected communities later this week, “as soon as it will not disrupt emergency response operations,” the White House said Sunday. Israeli airstrikes hit an intersection in the Lebanese capital of Beirut today, the first time the strikes have landed within the city limits since October 7. The attack comes days after Israel assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. In recent weeks, Israel has expanded its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen, stoking fears of a regional war, as Hezbollah pledged to continue fighting despite losses in its senior ranks. President Joe Biden said he is “working like hell” with allies to prevent an all-out war in the Middle East. Before Nasrallah’s killing, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brushed off a ceasefire proposal brokered by the US. Vice presidential nominees Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Ohio Sen. JD Vance are gearing up for a high-stakes debate on Tuesday — five weeks before Election Day. The Walz-Vance matchup may be the last debate of the 2024 election, unprecedented in modern presidential campaigns, with former President Donald Trump rejecting calls from Vice President Kamala Harris to agree to a second meeting, including one proposed by CNN for October 23. With a tight race entering the closing stretch and early voting underway in several states, the running mates’ showdown Tuesday in New York presents one of the last major opportunities to make the case for their respective tickets. The debate will be hosted by CBS and will begin at 9 p.m. ET. A reaction following a fire at a Georgia chemical plant on Sunday forced evacuations, shelter-in-place advisories and interstate road closures. The blaze broke out on the roof of BioLab in Conyers, Georgia, about 30 miles east of Atlanta. Officials said a malfunctioned sprinkler head “came in contact with a water-reactive chemical and produced a plume.” The fire was put out Sunday evening but the smoke may be visible for several days, officials said, adding that air quality surveys “revealed the harmful irritant chlorine” emitting from the facility.
The Army gynecologist described in a recent lawsuit as a “predator in uniform” is now being held in the Bell County Jail in Texas, “after apparently violating conditions of liberty imposed by his commander,” according to an Army spokesperson.
Brian Walshe on Thursday came face-to-face for the first time with the man who had been having an affair with his wife before her death, as he took the stand to testify in Walshe’s murder trial.
The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Texas to use a congressional map that will boost President Donald Trump’s effort to keep Republicans in control of Congress, blocking a lower court decision that found the new boundaries were likely unconstitutional because they were drawn based on race.
The US military carried out a strike Thursday on a suspected drug boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing four people on board, according to a social media post from US Southern Command.
A grand jury voted against indicting New York Attorney General Letitia James after being asked to look at the mortgage fraud case against her a second time, according to multiple people familiar with the development Thursday.
National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, can remain there for now, after a federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily froze a judge’s ruling that would have soon required them to leave the city’s streets.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bad week just got worse. That’s after the long-awaited release Thursday of an inspector general’s report on his sharing of highly sensitive military attack plans on the unclassified app Signal earlier this year.
President Donald Trump has hired a new architect for the White House ballroom amid disputes between the president and his architect originally contracted to complete the project, several sources have told CNN.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.
If nothing else, the controversy over the Trump administration’s second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean has surfaced a long-overdue debate about its already legally dubious first strikes.
Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.
Authorities in Colombia are dealing with increasingly sophisticated criminals, who use advanced tech to produce and conceal the drugs they hope to export around the world. But police and the military are fighting back, using AI to flag suspicious passengers, cargo and mail - alongside more conventional air and sea patrols. CNN’s Isa Soares gets an inside look at Bogotá’s war on drugs.
Young Americans are “a generation under profound strain” with little confidence in institutions and widespread economic concerns, according to a Harvard Institute of Politics survey of adults younger than 30 released Thursday.