Friday morning news: September 13, 2024

Francine update » Louisiana residents are still picking up the pieces after Hurricane Francine slammed the Gulf Coast Wednesday with winds of 100 miles per hour.

HOPKINS: It was a little more intense than I thought it would be. You know, I didn't think it would do quite the damage that it did.

The Category 2 hurricane knocked out power to thousands of homes and businesses and dumped several inches of rain on coastal areas triggering flash floods.

Gov. Jeff Landry thanked all those that prayed for Louisiana amid the storm.

LANDRY: Today, I am just elated that those prayers worked because we, as of right now, have no reports of any storm related fatalities, and we want to keep it that way.

Francine is weakening as it pushes inland. But forecasters warned it could bring flash flooding to states like Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia over the next few days.

Ukraine » Secretary of State Tony Blinken stopped in Poland Thursday, one day after meeting in Kyiv with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He said he heard loud and clear Zelenskyy’s plea for the U.S. to lift limits on using American-made weapons on targets deep inside of Russia.

BLINKEN:  As we go forward, we will do exactly what we have already done, which is we will adjust, we'll adapt as necessary, including with regard to the means that are at Ukraine's disposal to effectively defend against the Russian aggression.

During Blinken’s stop in his county, Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said he’s fully on board with lifting range restrictions on those weapons.

He’s heard here through an interpreter.

SIKORSKI:  The victim of aggression has the right to defend itself, has the right to combat all means of, uh, air strikes that hit against it. I'm of the opinion that Ukraine has the right to use Western weapons to prevent war crimes.

Zelenskyy made the case that because of the range restrictions on Western-supplied weapons, the Kremlin is moving military targets deeper inside Russian borders.

U.S. sanctions Maduro allies » Following Venezuela’s highly questionable election, in which disputed President Nicolas Maduro claimed victory, the U.S. government is imposing sanctions against 16 of his allies.

Washington accuses them obstructing the vote and carrying out human rights abuses. The list of those hit with sanctions include the head of the country’s high court, leaders of state security forces and prosecutors.

The move came days after opposition leader Edmundo González was forced into exile in Spain to avoid arrest in Venezuela.

No third presidential debate/campaigning » Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have wasted no time hitting the campaign trail again this week after facing off for the first time on Tuesday night.

HARRIS: Two nights ago, Donald Trump and I had our first debate.

The Vice President heard there campaigning Thursday in Charlotte, North Carolina. Both campaigns, of course, claimed victory in the first debate.

HARRIS: And I believe we owe it to the voters to have another debate.

But Trump told supporters in Arizona he’s not interested.

TRUMP: Because we’ve done two debates and because they were successful, there will be no third debate.

The Harris campaign says they have the former president running scared. But Trump’s team says Vice President Harris lost the debate and now her campaign wants a do-over.

Judge narrows Georgia case against Trump » The judge overseeing the Georgia election interference against Donald Trump and others has tossed out some of the counts in the indictment. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee is dismissing two criminal counts against Trump and another charge against other defendants. He said the prosecution, led by county District Attorney Fani Willis did not have the authority to bring charges related to alleged filing of false documents.

But the other counts, including eight against Trump, still stand.

The former president had pleaded not guilty to all counts and calls the case political persecution.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Spacewalk » American tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman and his crew just made history in outer space, completing the first private-sector space walk in history.

Isaacman exited the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft Thursday to test the company’s new spacesuit.

ISAACMAN: Back home we all have a lot of work to do. But from here, it sure looks like a perfect world.

SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis followed soon after. The mission’s other two crew members remained inside the capsule.

This week’s mission is part of the Polaris Program that is meant to set the stage for the first manned spaceflight of the Starship craft.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday with Andrew Walker. Plus, this month’s Word Play.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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