Today is Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2022. Let’s get caught up.
Here are today’s top stories, celebrity birthdays and a look back at this date in history.
TODAY’S WEATHER
Tropical Storm Karl heads to Mexico as rain and storms move towards the East. CNN meteorologist Britley Ritz has the forecast.
TOP STORIES
President Joe Biden is reevaluating the US relationship with Saudi Arabia. That’s after the Riyadh-led OPEC+ alliance of oil-producing nations announced it would cut oil production and as Democratic lawmakers are calling for a freeze on cooperation with the Saudis. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday said Biden believes “that it’s time to take another look at this relationship and make sure that it’s serving our national security interests.” Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Rep. Ro Khanna of California on Tuesday introduced legislation that would immediately pause all US arms sales to Saudi Arabia for one year.
The Biden administration is urging the Supreme Court to steer clear of a legal fight over classified documents during an FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate. The high court is weighing an emergency appeal from Trump asking it to overturn a lower court ruling and permit an independent arbitrator, or special master, to review the roughly 100 documents with classified markings that were taken in the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago. The Justice Department says in a 32-page filing Tuesday that Trump’s claim has no merit, noting the case involves “extraordinarily sensitive government records.”
Angela Lansbury, the scene-stealing British actor who kicked up her heels in the Broadway musicals “Mame” and “Gypsy” and solved endless murders as crime novelist Jessica Fletcher in the long-running TV series “Murder, She Wrote,” has died . She was 96. Lansbury died Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles, according to a statement from her three children. Lansbury won five Tony Awards for her Broadway performances. She earned Academy Award nominations as supporting actress for two of her first three films, “Gaslight” and “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and was nominated again for “The Manchurian Candidate” and her deadly portrayal of a Communist agent and the title character’s mother .
Joe Biden’s three-state swing out West this week will capture, in a nutshell, the White House’s midterm strategy for a president who remains broadly unpopular: Promote his administration’s accomplishments and appear where he can effectively rally the party faithful. It’s all part of a campaign blueprint fine-tuned over the last several months. Biden has been eager to travel the country. But he’s facing the traditional midterm headwinds against the political party in power, an unsettled economic outlook and presidential approval ratings that have remained stubbornly underwater. Biden will visit Colorado, California and Oregon.
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency says Ukraine’s biggest nuclear plant has lost all external power needed for vital safety systems for the second time in five days. International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi on Wednesday called it a “deeply worrying development.” The warning from Grossi came amid a flurry of developments in Russia’s war in Ukraine on Wednesday. Ukraine’s military command said its forces recaptured five settlements in the southern Kherson region. Russia’s top domestic security agency said henceforth that eight people had been arrested in connection with the weekend Crimea bridge blast.
The Los Angeles City Council is mirrored in uncertainty. President Joe Biden is calling for three members to resign after a recording surfaced of them participating in a meeting in which racist language was used to mock their colleagues. Three current or former members have been indicted or pleaded guilty to corruption charges. It’s possible resignations could create new vacancies. It’s not known if the Council can assemble the required 10 members — out of 15 total — to conduct business Wednesday. Raphael Sonenshein — who heads the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles — calls the situation chaotic.
NASA says a spacecraft that plowed into a small, harmless asteroid millions of miles away last month succeeded in shifting its orbit. The space agency announced the results of the experiment Tuesday. NASA attempted the first test of its kind two weeks ago to see if a killer rock could be nudged out of Earth’s way. The Dart spacecraft carved a crater into the asteroid, hurling debris out into space and creating a cometlike trail of dust and rubble. It took consecutive nights of telescope observations to determine how much the impact altered the asteroid’s path around its companion, a bigger space rock.
Some 477 pilot whales have died after stranding themselves on two remote New Zealand beaches over recent days, officials say. None of the stranded whales could be refloated and all either died naturally or were euthanized in a “heartbreaking” loss. That’s according to Daren Grover, the general manager of Project Jonah, a nonprofit group that helps rescue whales. The whales beached themselves on the Chatham Islands, which are home to about 600 people and located about 500 miles east of New Zealand’s main islands. Scientists don’t know exactly what causes the whales to beach, although it appears their location systems can get confused by gently sloping sandy beaches.
HOUSTON (AP) — Jordan Alvarez hit a game-ending, three-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning off Robbie Ray, wrecking Seattle’s strategy of using a Cy Young Award winner in a rare relief role and vaulting the Houston Astros over the Mariners 8-7 Tuesday in their playoff opener.
MORNING LISTEN
IMAGE OF THE DAY
This image taken with a drone shows the trees around Holy Hill Basilica beginning to change colors Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022, in Hubertus, Wis.
AP Photo/Morry Gash
TODAY IN HISTORY
One year ago: The New Jersey Nets said Kyrie Irving could not play or practice with them until he could be a full participant; New York City r…
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
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Celebrity Birthdays: Oct. 12
Bob Schneider
Rock singer Bob Schneider is 56.
AP
Bode Miller
Olympic gold medal skier Bode Miller is 45.
AP
Chris Botti
Jazz musician Chris Botti (BOH’-tee) is 59.
AP
Chris Wallace
Broadcast journalist Chris Wallace is 74.
AFP Pool
Hiroyuki Sanada
Actor Hiroyuki Sanada is 62.
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Hugh Jackman
Actor Hugh Jackman is 53.
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Josh Hutcherson
Actor Josh Hutcherson is 30.
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Kirk Cameron
Actor Kirk Cameron is 51.
AP
Martie Maguire
Ccountry musician Martie Maguire (Courtyard Hounds, The Chicks) is 52.
Invision
Sam Moore
Singer Sam Moore (formerly of Sam and Dave) is 86.
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Tyler Blackburn
Actor Tyler Blackburn is 36.
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Malu