
5 things to know for July 21: Flooding, Gaza, Russia-Ukraine, LA crash, Washington Commanders
Here's what else you need to know to get up to speed and on with your day.
This summer has been defined by a tragic surge in deadly flash floods across the US, underscoring the escalating volatility of our warming world. First, there was the devastating Texas floods that occurred on July 4 that killed more than 130 people. Three more people died after flash floods hit Ruidoso, New Mexico, on July 8. Major roads in Chicago were suddenly under water when a 1,000-year rainfall event struck in early July. New York City saw its second-heaviest rainfall total in one hour on July 14. Torrential rains and flooding also hit portions of North Carolina and Kansas City this month. Despite this chain of events, the Trump administration recently paused work on a new database designed to provide Americans with updated estimates about their risk of experiencing flash floods. However, after reporting by CNN and The Washington Post, and discussions between NOAA leadership and Commerce Department officials, NOAA has received permission to move ahead with work on the database
At least 76 children and 10 adults have reportedly died of malnutrition in Gaza since the conflict with Israel began in October 2023, the Palestinian health ministry says. According to the World Health Organization, most of those deaths have occurred since Israel imposed a humanitarian aid blockade in March. The latest casualties reflect a deepening crisis in the enclave. Aid agencies say the amount of food, medical supplies and fuel reaching Gaza is far too little to sustain the population. And each day, thousands risk their lives to find something to eat. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said nearly 800 Palestinians were killed while trying to access aid between late May and July 7.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for talks with Russia this week in an effort to reach a ceasefire deal. 'The dynamics of the negotiations must improve. We need to do everything possible to achieve a ceasefire. The Russian side must stop avoiding decisions regarding prisoner exchanges, the return of children and the cessation of killings,' Zelensky said. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov responded by saying that Russia was 'ready to move quickly' on achieving a peace deal with Ukraine, but its 'main goal' was to achieve its 'objectives.' The latest round of talks in Istanbul ended in early June, with Russian and Ukrainian delegates meeting for barely over an hour before calling it quits. Since then, Russia has launched waves of deadly missile and drone strikes at Ukraine. Russia may also be days or weeks away from starting a heightened summer offensive, perhaps using the 160,000 troops Ukrainian officials have said are amassing near their front lines.
A man who was reportedly kicked out of a nightclub early Saturday is accused of intentionally driving into a crowd that had gathered outside for valet services, food stands and entry into the hotspot. The crash at The Vermont Hollywood left at least 36 people injured and seven in critical condition. The driver, identified as Fernando Ramirez, 29, was then dragged out of his vehicle by bystanders, beaten and shot in the lower back. Ramirez was transported to the hospital for surgery and arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. The man believed to have shot Ramirez remains at large. Mayor Karen Bass called the incident a 'heartbreaking tragedy' and praised the swift response of more than 100 police and fire personnel.
President Donald Trump is threatening to restrict a stadium deal in Washington, DC, unless the Washington Commanders change their name back to the 'Redskins.' The football team dropped the old name in 2020 after decades of criticism from Native American groups. But on Sunday, Trump posted on his social media network: 'I may put a restriction on them that if they don't change the name back to the original 'Washington Redskins,' and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, 'Washington Commanders,' I won't make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington.' In April, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced plans to build a new stadium on federal land at the site of the old Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium and bring the Commanders back to the district. The proposal is currently stalled before the DC Council. CNN has reached out to the Commanders and the DC mayor's office for comment on Trump's posts.
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The president claimed that Woodward had released audio from their interviews without his consent and sought nearly $50 million in damages.
The giant prop experienced a serious malfunction during the pop star's show in San Francisco.
After years of Marvel movies, audiences are up for a little DC action with the Man of Steel.
Researchers have finally decoded an error in the 12th-century epic, 'The Song of Wade.' Apparently, the hero doesn't battle elves.
And it was all due to one lucky mistake.
$14.75 millionThat's how much one famous prop from the 1941 movie, 'Citizen Kane,' sold for at auction.
'I should have just stayed renting.'
— Angel Scheid, who purchased her one bedroom, one bathroom Los Angeles home in 2022 for $915,000, with a 5.99% interest rate. She was planning to refinance her mortgage, but interest rates have remained too high.
🌤️ Check your local forecast to see what you can expect.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other Trump officials seem open to embracing psychedelics to treat conditions such as trauma, depression and drug addiction. The shift has advocates excited, but some experts worry the hype could be getting ahead of science and safety. In part one of a two-part series, we hear from someone who says a powerful hallucinogen helped kick her drug habit.
Today's edition of 5 Things AM was edited and produced by CNN's Andrew Torgan.
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35 minutes ago
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An executive order signed by President Trump purporting to protect Americans from 'endemic vagrancy, disorderly behavior, sudden confrontations, and violent attacks' attributed to homelessness has left local officials and homeless advocates outraged over its harsh tone while also grasping for a hopeful message in its fine print. The order Trump signed Thursday would require federal agencies to reverse precedents or consent decrees that impede U.S. policy 'encouraging civil commitment of individuals with mental illness who pose risks to themselves or the public or are living on the streets and cannot care for themselves.' It ordered those agencies to 'ensure the availability of funds to support encampment removal efforts.' Depending on how that edict is carried out, it could extend a lifeline for Mayor Karen Bass' Inside Safe program, which has eliminated dozens of the city's most notable encampments but faces budget challenges to maintain the hotel and motel beds that allow people to move indoors. Responding to the order Friday, Bass said she was troubled that it called for ending street homelessness and moving people into rehabilitation facilities at the same time as the administration's cuts to Medicaid have affected funding 'streams for facilities for people to stay in, especially people who are disabled.' 'Of course I'm concerned about any punitive measures,' Bass said. 'But first and foremost, if you want to end street homelessness, then you have got to have housing and services for people who are on the street.' Kevin Murray, president and chief executive of the Weingart Center homeless services and housing agency, saw ambiguity in the language. 'I couldn't tell whether he is offering money for people who want to do it his way or taking money away from people who don't do it his way,' Murray said. Others took their cue from the order's provocative tone set in a preamble declaring that the overwhelming majority of the 274,224 people reported living on the street in 2024 'are addicted to drugs, have a mental health condition, or both.' The order contradicted a growing body of research finding that substance use and mental illness, while significant, are not overriding factors in homelessness. 'Nearly two-thirds of homeless individuals report having regularly used hard drugs like methamphetamines, cocaine, or opioids in their lifetimes. An equally large share of homeless individuals reported suffering from mental health conditions.' A February study by the Benioff Homeless and Housing Initiative at UC San Francisco found that only about 37% of more than 3,000 homeless people surveyed in California were using illicit drugs regularly, but just over 65% reported having regularly used at some point in their lives. More than a third said their drug use had decreased after they became homeless and one in five interviewed in depth said they were seeking treatment but couldn't get it. 'As with most executive orders, it doesn't have much effect on its own,' said Steve Berg, chief policy officer for the National Alliance to End Homelessness. 'It tells the federal agencies to do different things. Depending on how the federal agencies do those things, that's what will have the impact.' In concrete terms, the order seeks to divert funding from two pillars of mainstream homelessness practice, 'housing first,' the prioritization of permanent housing over temporary shelter, and 'harm reduction,' the rejection of abstinence as a condition of receiving services and housing. According to the order, grants issued under the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration should 'not fund programs that fail to achieve adequate outcomes, including so-called 'harm reduction' or 'safe consumption' efforts that only facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm.' And the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development should, to the extent permitted by law, end support for 'housing first' policies that 'deprioritize accountability and fail to promote treatment, recovery, and self-sufficiency.' To some extent, those themes reflect shifts that have been underway in the state and local response to homelessness. Under pressure from Gov. Gavin Newsom, the California legislature established rules allowing relatives and service providers to refer people to court for treatment and expanded the definition of gravely disabled to include substance use. Locally, Bass' Inside Safe program and the county's counterpart, Pathway Home, have prioritized expanding interim housing to get people off the streets immediately. Trump's order goes farther, though, wading into the controversial issue of how much coercion is justified in eliminating encampments. The Attorney General and the other federal agencies, it said, should take steps to ensure that grants go to states and cities that enforce prohibitions on open illicit drug use, urban camping and loitering and squatting. Homeless advocacy organizations saw those edicts as a push for criminalization of homelessness and mental illness. 'We'll be back to the days of 'One Flew Over the Cuckcoo's Nest,' 'Berg said, referring to the 1962 novel and subsequent movie dramatizing oppressive conditions in mental health institutions. Defending Housing First as a proven strategy that is the most cost-effective way to get people off the street, Berg said the order encourages agencies to use the money in less cost-effective ways. 'What we want to do is reduce homelessness,' he said. 'I'm not sure that is the goal of the Trump administration.' The National Homelessness Law Center said in a statement saying, 'This Executive Order is rooted in outdated, racist myths about homelessness and will undoubtedly make homelessness worse.... Trump's actions will force more people into homelessness, divert taxpayer money away from people in need, and make it harder for local communities to solve homelessness.' Murray, who describes himself as not a fan of Housing First, noted that key policies pressed in the order—civil commitment, encampment removal and substance use treatment—are already gaining prominence in the state and local response to homelessness. 'We all think if it came from Trump it is horrible,' Murray said. 'It is certainly overbearing. It certainly misses some nuances of what real people with mental illness and substance use are like. But we've started down the path of most of this stuff.' His main concern was that the order might be interpreted to apply to Section 8, the primary federal financial tool for getting homeless people into housing. What would happen, he asked, if someone with a voucher refused treatment? 'It might encourage more people to stay on the streets,' he said. 'Getting people into treatment isn't easy.'


NBC News
36 minutes ago
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The next big health care fight that's splitting Republicans: From the Politics Desk
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GOP leaders are facing growing calls from their members to extend a bucket of funding for the Affordable Care Act that is set to expire at the end of this year as some look to avert insurance premium hikes and millions of Americans losing their health coverage. But the cause faces opposition from conservatives who detest Obamacare and don't want to lift a finger to protect it. Some argue it'd be too expensive to continue the premium tax credits, which cost over $30 billion per year and were initially adopted as part of a Covid-19 response. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that about 5 million Americans will lose their insurance by 2034 if the money expires. The divide: Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., who represents a swing district that Trump lost in 2024, said that Congress should continue those ACA tax credits in order to avoid price increases. 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A midterm warning: Veteran GOP pollsters Tony Fabrizio and Bob Ward recently released a memo warning that extending the health care tax credits is broadly popular, even with 'solid majorities of Trump voters and [s]wing voters.' They warned that the GOP will pay a 'political penalty' in the competitive districts in the 2026 midterm elections if the funding expires on schedule. Analysis by Kristen Welker The Jeffrey Epstein saga is the political headache that won't go away for President Donald Trump, as the drip-drip of new reporting on his past relationship with the convicted sex offender and repeated attempts to deflect have only fed the story. It's the first time we've really seen Trump's base break with him to this degree. Even though the impulse to rally around their leader remains as each new story breaks, no matter how Trump tries to change the subject, the calls for his administration to release more information from the Epstein files are only growing louder. The issue transcends politics — it's a devastating reminder of the victims of the crimes committed by Epstein and those who enabled him. As far as how it's playing out on Capitol Hill, Democrats and even some Republicans are trying to hold the Trump administration's feet to the fire. Both parties believe the GOP could pay a political price on the issue as they look to defend their congressional majorities in next year's midterms. That includes Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., one of our guests on 'Meet the Press' this Sunday. 'People will become apathetic again. They'll say, we elected President Trump. We gave him a majority in the House and the Senate, and they couldn't even release evidence of an underage sex trafficking ring. They couldn't even bring themselves to release that. I thought we were the party of family values, and I guess we're not,' Massie said this week on the 'Redacted' podcast. And Democrats, including Rep. Ro Khanna of California — another one of our guests this Sunday — argue the issue has salience on multiple fronts. They note it divides Trump and his base while also making a relatively popular appeal for transparency, one piece of a broader Democratic line of attack that the administration isn't being open with the American people. While it's unsurprising that Democrats overwhelmingly disapprove of how the Trump administration is handling the Epstein files, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll, 71% of independents disapprove, too. And Republicans are about evenly divided, with 40% approving and 36% disapproving of the administration's handling of the issue. The political cost for Republicans isn't clear yet. Will it depress the enthusiasm of voters Republicans are scrambling to motivate to turn out with Trump not on the ballot? Will it force the party onto the defense at a time where it needs to be cementing public sentiment about its landmark tax cuts and spending bill, which Democrats are already weaponizing as a key midterm issue? Could Democrats overplay their hand if it overshadows their message on the most important issue to many voters, the economy? We'll discuss this and more on this Sunday's 'Meet the Press.' In addition to Khanna and Massie, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., will also be joining us. Thanks to everyone who emailed us! This week's reader question is on Republicans' attempts to draw new congressional maps in Texas. 'Is it legal what Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Republicans want to do for Trump?' To answer that, we turned to senior politics editor Scott Bland. Here's his response: Redistricting happens every decade after the decennial census, so that each state has representation in the House of Representatives reflecting its official population and each district in a state has the same number of people in it. But this isn't the first time someone has moved to change the maps mid-decade. In fact, this isn't even the first time it's happened in Texas. In 2002, Texas Republicans gained full control of the state Legislature, and they decided the following year to draw a new map to replace a court-drawn one that had been imposed for that decade — and to increase the GOP advantage in the state. 'I'm the majority leader and we want more seats,' Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, told reporters at the time. What flies in Texas doesn't necessarily fly everywhere, though. Colorado Republicans also tried to redraw maps in their state in 2003, but the state Supreme Court ruled that the state Constitution forbade revisiting the maps more than once per decade. While Democrats are eager to fight back against the GOP's effort to draw more red seats in Texas, such obstacles could stand in their way. As New York Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs told Politico this week, 'I understand those in New York who are watching what's happening in Texas and Ohio want to offset their unfair advantage.' But, he added, 'The [state] Constitution seems pretty clear that this redistricting process should be done every 10 years.'