How SCOTUS is already influencing Nov. midterms, Britain's new prime minister: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: How the Supreme Court is already influencing the November midterm elections

Supreme Court correspondent John Fritze explains. Plus, a suspect remains at-large in Canada's stabbings, the U.N.'s atomic watchdog is pushing for a safe zone around the Zaporizhzhia power plant in Ukraine, international correspondent Kim Hjelmgaard looks into Britain's new prime minister and students in Uvalde return to school.

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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 Wednesday, the 7th of September, 2022. Today, the Supreme Court's impact on midterm elections, plus a suspect remains at large in Canada's stabbing massacre, and more.

Here are some of the top headlines:

1. Four people were killed in California wildfires over Labor Day weekend. Some 4,000 firefighters are battling 14 large fires around the state amid record breaking high temperatures.

2. Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will meet at a summit next week in Uzbekistan. It'll be Xi's first foreign trip in two and a half years.

3. And Alabama remains on top of college football's USA TODAY Sports AFCA coaches poll this week. Defending national champion, Georgia, moves up to No. 2 after destroying Oregon in its opening game.

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From rulings on voting restrictions approved after the 2020 election to rethinking the Voting Rights Act, federal courts are having a big impact on voting. Supreme Court Correspondent John Fritze, explains how the courts are already influencing the November midterm elections.

John Fritze:

So a lot of the focus right now is on 2024 and these big cases that are coming down the pike, but there's also, not the Supreme Court, but lower courts are having an impact on the election we're about to have here in a few months. And the way that that's coming up is you remember after the 2020 election, there were all these laws that were passed about restricting access to the ballot, things like reducing the use of drop boxes, making it more difficult to file an absentee ballot and so forth. Supporters of these policies say that, look, things got out of hand and it opens up the election process to fraud and they want to make sure people have integrity or feel like they have confidence with the voting system. Opponents say that that's bunk and that there really isn't any evidence of fraud and that what's really going on here are people trying to depress turnout and specifically depress Democratic turnout.

So that's the debate around that, but what's happening is that a lot of the litigation that came after these laws were passed is basically being put on hold. And that's because the Supreme Court handed down this idea many years ago that courts should not get involved with changing the rules of an election close to the election, which I think that makes sense. I think everybody can understand the court shouldn't be coming in at the last minute changing the rules that confuses everything. The challenge is, and where the debate is, is what is the last minute? And courts are saying that, "Hey, November is still a few months off here, but that basically the last minute is upon us." And that is because of poll training and all sorts of reasons why they say that the court should not be ruling against these restrictions.

The bottom line is that you have a lot of these states that pass these controversial restrictions, those restrictions will be in place for the midterm elections in a lot of cases, even if the courts, at some point in the future say, Hey, you can't do that. It's unconstitutional or it's against the law. It appears like they'll be in place for the midterm election. And this is things like, you talked about drop boxes, it's also in a number of states, this idea of line warming, which is handing out water bottles and food to long lines at polling places.

Taylor Wilson:

For John's full story, you can find a link in today's show description.

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Authorities said yesterday they still have not found the remaining suspect in Canada's stabbing massacre. Canadian police surrounded a house on the same indigenous reserve where some of the Sunday morning attacks took place in Saskatchewan, and an emergency alert yesterday warned the suspect might be in the area. But police said, later in the day, that Miles Sanderson was not in the community. He's one of two brothers believed to have killed 10 people and injured 18 in the stabbings. His older brother, Damien, was found dead on Monday near one of at least 13 locations where the stabbings took place. Attacks happened in James Smith Cree Nation, an indigenous community, and the nearby town of Weldon, both in the central part of the Western Canadian province.

Authorities say that Miles Sanderson, the last remaining suspect, was last seen in the city of Regina, about a hundred miles north of the US border. Police say he should be considered armed and dangerous. Police had already been looking for him since May when he skipped a parole meeting. He has dozens of convictions for assaults in other violent crimes. A manhunt has also extended across neighboring provinces, Alberta and Manitoba. Each is close to the size of Texas. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, said he's offering federal resources to Saskatchewan in the wake of the tragedy.

Justin Trudeau:

It's why it's so important that everyone follow the instructions of the local authorities to do everything they can to keep safe. The federal government, we're ensuring whatever resources are needed by the police of jurisdiction are received to be able to put an end to this situation and to allow people to grieve without fear. To start the healing process it will take an awfully, awfully long time because this was an incredibly horrific and traumatic event.

Taylor Wilson:

CBC news in Canada is reporting that the country's parole board is reviewing its decision to release Miles Sanderson from prison. A motive for Sunday's killings is still unclear, but Indigenous leaders and others in the community have said they could be drug related.

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The UN Atomic Watchdog Agency urged Russia and Ukraine, yesterday, to create a so-called nuclear safety and security protection zone around the Zaporizhzhia power plant. Days after leading an inspection trip to the facility, International Atomic Energy Agency Chief Rafael Grossi told the UN Security Council that the international community is playing with fire.

Rafael Grossi:

Hits that this facility has received, and that I could personally see and assess together with my experts, is simply unacceptable. We are playing with fire and something very, very catastrophic could take place. This is why in our report, we are proposing the establishing, the establishment, sorry, of a nuclear safety and a security protection zone limited to the perimeter and the plant itself.

Taylor Wilson:

Russia took over the plant during its invasion of Ukraine, though, it's still being run by Ukrainian engineers. Global leaders have expressed concern of potential nuclear disaster with shelling around the facility. The IAEA found evidence of that on its trip and said it should stop immediately, something UN Secretary-General António Guterres echoed. Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for violence near the plant, but when asked by reporters about establishing a de-militarized zone, Russia's UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said the proposal is not serious and that there is not currently any Russian military equipment at the facility.

Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, called for the IAEA to back his push for Russian forces to withdraw from the area. The plant was, again, knocked off Ukraine's electrical grid this week. It typically relies on power from the outside to run critical cooling systems that keep its reactors and spent fuel from overheating. A loss of those systems could lead to a nuclear meltdown.

The IAEA did not blame either side for Zaporizhzhia shelling, but it expressed serious concerns about power outages. It also warned that Ukrainian staff working there under Russian military occupation is under constant high stress. Its report also confirmed it saw Russian military on the property. Two inspectors from the IAEA mission have remained at the facility.

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Britain has a new prime minister. First Boris Johnson, yesterday, formally left the position.

Boris Johnson:

Let me say that I am now like one of those booster rockets that has fulfilled its function and I will now be gently reentering the atmosphere and splashing down invisibly in some remote and obscure corner of the Pacific.

Taylor Wilson:

Taking over is the Conservative Party's Liz Truss, Britain's former foreign secretary.

Liz Truss:

We will transform Britain into an aspiration nation with high paying jobs, safe streets, and where everyone everywhere has the opportunities they deserve.

Taylor Wilson:

She becomes the country's third female prime minister after Margaret Thatcher, who governed from 1979 to 1990 and Theresa May, who did so from 2016 to 2019. It's also Britain's third prime minister in just over three years. Producer PJ Elliott, spoke with international reporter, Kim Hjelmgaard, to find out more about the UK's new leader.

Kim Hjelmgaard:

Liz Truss is, she's a long time conservative party politician. She's served in the outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government. First as an international trade secretary, and then most recently as foreign secretary, so equivalent to the secretary of state in the US. And she's been a pretty high profile voice on the world stage in terms of pushing for aggressive action on Russia's war in Ukraine. And beyond that, I think it's probably fair to say that she's someone whose career is, as I said in one of my stories about her, is full of ideological u-turns. So she's tacked back and forth on different issues over the years. She actually started, mean this when she was in college as a Liberal Democrat, which is one of the smaller opposition parties in the UK and now, but is like anathema to the Conservative Party in terms of all the big hot button issues.

She was against Brexit, initially, which is one of the Brexit being the UK's exit from the European Union is one of the dividing lines that people fall on or down and around here in the UK. And suddenly when it became obvious that Brexit was going to happen and there was no turning back, she pushed for it with zeal. I think probably fair to say that she's a pretty experienced cabinet minister, she's on the, by American standards, she's on the young side, she's 47. She's Britain's third female prime minister. Most famous, of course, is Margaret Thatcher. After Thatcher there was Theresa May, who was directly preceded, Boris Johnson. But just to sum up her beliefs, she mainly sees herself in the mold of Thatcher, which is someone who wants to cut taxes, who believes in a smaller state, who is on the right politically, gets frustrated with red tape and all those tropes that are familiar to people on the political ride.

PJ Elliott:

How commonplace is this for the ruling party to swap out its prime minister?

Kim Hjelmgaard:

So in Britain, unlike the United States, when there's a general election the public votes in a party not a specific leader, so not a specific prime minister or a president in US terms. So it's not uncommon for various reasons for the ruling party, in this case the Conservative party, to change leaders. It doesn't happen all that often. It tends to happen when a serving prime minister's hand is forced, as in the case of Boris Johnson who resigned over a series of scandals. But I believe it's only the second time in recent history, anyway, that this has happened, i.e. where it hasn't been an election that has changed the leader. It's been an internal party contest. Now, much of that has to do with the fact that the British constitution is not written down and so these rules can change.

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Students in Uvalde, Texas returned to school yesterday. For many, it was the first day of school since a gunman massacred 19 elementary school students and two teachers in the town in May. Robb Elementary, where the attack took place, is permanently closed and will be demolished. But students flooded into other schools this week, including Uvalde Elementary, where a new eight foot fence was built. Police have also upped their presence across the town despite widespread distrust of law enforcement. Police waited more than an hour before confronting the gunman in the shooting, even as children inside the classroom called 911. Celeste Ibarra daughter was at Robb Elementary during the shooting. She said, she's been dreading this week.

Celeste Ibarra:

I was just scared, so scared that I won't get her back, but we went through drills all summer. I taught them, if y'all hear anything in the hallway, get out the window, run, don't stop. Don't scream. They have phones now, each of them, which I didn't believe in kids that age should have phones, but now I have to.

Taylor Wilson:

Over the summer, more than a hundred students in Uvalde signed up for virtual learning and others transferred to private schools. The school district fired Police Chief Pete Arredondo for the slow law enforcement response to the shooting. And two officers have been suspended with pay.

Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us every morning right here, wherever you're listening, right now. 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: SCOTUS already influencing midterms, a look at Liz Truss: 5 Things podcast