British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigns, Supreme Court's October decisions: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigns amid economic turmoil

She led for just six weeks in office. Plus, the Supreme Court rolls out October decisions, enterprise reporter Christopher Maag looks at broken COVID testing in the U.S., a teenage chess prodigy files a defamation lawsuit after cheating accusations and the Orionids meteor shower peaks.

Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here.

Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Friday, the 21st of October, 2022. Today, another Prime Minister change in Britain. Plus a look at some of the Supreme Court's pressing cases this term, and more.

Here are some of the top headlines:

1. Security forces in Chad have killed at least 60 people amid mass protests in the African country. Demonstrators are rallying against leader Mahamat Idriss Déby's two year extension of his power.

2. A Princeton University student, reported missing last weekend, was found dead on campus yesterday. The Mercer County Prosecutor's office in New Jersey said 20-year old Misrach Ewunetie's death did not appear suspicious in nature.

3. And Taylor Swift has released a new album. Swifties got a treat with Midnights, her 10th studio album out today.

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British Prime Minister Liz Truss has announced her resignation.

Liz Truss:

Given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party. I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King, to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party.

Taylor Wilson:

She spent just six weeks in office amid severe economic turmoil. Producer PJ Elliott, spoke with World Affairs correspondent, Kim Hjelmgaard, to find out who may be in line to take her place.

Kim Hjelmgaard:

So in Britain, as you may or may not know, people here elect a party, not a particular leader. So there's this backbench committee, it's called the 1922 Committee. In this case, what's going to happen over the next week is basically this committee has said that by Friday, October 28th, there should be ... an internal party selection process should have happened, so that we'll get a name that we put forward as the new party leader and thus by default, the new prime minister.

Now between now and then, a number of different things can happen. The first thing that's going to happen is essentially on Monday, any conservative lawmaker who wants to put their name forward, can. However, they have to get at least 100 lawmakers to support their candidacy.

PJ Elliott:

Kim, let me ask you this. What are the chances that former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who resigned just about two months ago, could become the new prime minister to replace Liz Truss?

Kim Hjelmgaard:

Well, British political junkies are watching this because some of the lawmakers are already publicly signaling where they're going. So people are counting already. And right now, Boris Johnson has about between 30 and 40 declared lawmakers on his side. So he's not that far, he's almost halfway there.

PJ Elliott:

Kim, how does the UK bounce back after all of this? They've had two prime ministers resign in the last two months. How do they sort of stabilize their reputation around the world?

Kim Hjelmgaard:

I think what the UK needs is just a little bit of time and continuity. It needs a leader who's going to come out and kind of reassure markets, reassure investors, that there is some kind of credible plan here to right the ship. I think it's going to take some sort of quiet and long, boring governance really, and somebody who doesn't grab headlines, but just kind of like gets on with business of dotting the I's and crossing the T's.

Taylor Wilson:

You can find Kim's full story in today's episode description.

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The Supreme Court began its current term earlier this month. In its latest move, the court yesterday denied an emergency appeal from a Wisconsin taxpayer group challenging President Joe Biden's loan forgiveness program. His plan would cancel up to $20,000 in student loan debt for Pell Grant recipients and $10,000 for other borrowers. The appeal from the Brown County Taxpayers Association, is one of several moving through federal courts attempting to stop the effort. Critics argue it exceeds the Department of Education's authority. Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett denied the request to temporarily block the program's implementation a day after it was filed.

As for other cases, Supreme Court correspondent, John Fritze, looks at what else to look out for this term.

John Fritze:

This Supreme Court term features a docket full of compelling cases and controversies. Everything from LGBTQ rights, to affirmative action, to how states run federal elections. Even though this case is really important in its own right, I think it's hard to separate it from what happened last term. There, the conservative majority on the Supreme Court, really flexed its muscle overturning Roe v. Wade, blurring the line separating church and state, expanding access to guns under the Second Amendment. I think the real question for court watchers is whether those decisions signaled a shift at the Supreme Court.

One of the big themes that runs through many of the major cases at the Supreme Court this term is race. We see it most predominantly in the affirmative action case where a group is suing Harvard College and the University of North Carolina, asserting that college admissions officials have no business in considering prospective students' race as they try to build a diverse class.

The other place we see it, is in the elections context. There, Alabama is defending a new congressional map that includes one African-American majority district out of seven, despite the fact that African Americans make up more than a quarter of that state's population. That case could tell us a lot about how the court views the Voting Rights Act of 1965. And all of these cases could tell us a lot about how the court is interpreting the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

We're also watching on a number of other really interesting cases. One dealing with LGBTQ rights, and whether businesses can deny their services to same-sex marriages because of their religious objections. And we're watching a really important election case, that deals with how much control or power state legislatures have to set the rules for election without interference from state courts. All of these cases will provide us a good deal of insight into how conservative this court is going to be and how fast it's going to move.

Taylor Wilson:

For more, search "Supreme Court" on USATODAY.com.

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Throughout the COVID 19 pandemic, every major surge in cases has forced a log jam in America's complex diagnostic testing infrastructure. USA TODAY spent a year exploring why COVID testing in the US is broken. PJ Elliott spoke with Enterprise reporter, Christopher Maag, to learn what he found out.

Christopher Maag:

Broadly, I think the American public did not know that our national diagnostics system wasn't really a system and wasn't working, but experts in public health did know and they had told Congress. And the proof for that, is that in late December, Congress passed $50 million to begin to study these failing and non-existent data systems. That money was dispersed when COVID cases were already spreading in California. So it was a tiny amount, $50 million spread across 56 public health agencies, and it was years too late.

PJ Elliott:

So what, if anything, is being done to fix it?

Christopher Maag:

The CDC has taken its former green form and that is now digital. Outside of that, America's diagnostic testing systems are worse now than they were before COVID.

PJ Elliott:

So are we better off now than we were three years ago before the pandemic began?

Christopher Maag:

I think, on balance, most experts would say we are worse off now with our diagnostic testing than we were before COVID. Quest Diagnostics and Labcorp have more machines, PCR machines, available, but they've received no public subsidies to expand the pre and post analytic parts of their systems. So the data and the logistics are still pre-COVID and no public infrastructure has been built.

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Taylor Wilson:

American chess grandmaster, Hans Niemann, filed a lawsuit yesterday against five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen, and the online platform Chess.com. The suit claims defamation in the latest chapter surrounding the world of competitive chess. The suit points in part to a 72-page report published by Chess.com earlier this month, finding that Niemann likely cheated in more than a hundred online chess games.

Niemann, who's 19 years old, admitted to cheating in online chess twice, but he's denied cheating at any in-person games. Despite his denials, though, Niemann's rapid ascension up world rankings as a teenager, has raised eyebrows. And Magnus Carlsen, one of the sports' best, has formally accused Niemann of cheating.

In the lawsuit, Niemann says his career has been hurt because he's now had to miss out on key tournaments, in part because Carlsen said he will not participate in any event with Niemann. The lawsuit seeks $100 million in damages.

One of falls' top astronomical events is taking place this dawn, the Orionid meteor shower. The Orionids are active each year from October 2nd to November 7th, but peaked this morning. Individual shooting stars within the Orionids are fragments of Halley's Comet, the most famous comet of all time. The actual comet though, can only be seen about once every 75 years, with the next in 2062.

If you do get a chance to see the Orionids before sunrise, they produce a maximum of about 10 to 20 meteors an hour according to EarthSky.org, and also sometimes create bright fireballs. And if you didn't catch them this morning, you can try again this weekend. Check out a visual guide to every meteor shower in 2022 with a link in today's show description.

And you can find 5 Things every morning on your favorite podcast app. Thanks to PJ Elliott for his great work on the show, and I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Liz Truss resigns, Supreme Court's October docket: 5 Things podcast