10 things you need to know today: October 6, 2022

1. Biden, DeSantis vow to work together on hurricane recovery

President Biden visited Fort Myers, Florida, on Wednesday to meet with victims of Hurricane Ian and tour areas devastated when the powerful storm roared ashore last week. "Today, we have one job and only one job, and that's to make sure that people in Florida get everything that they need to fully, thoroughly recover," Biden said. The president and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) pledged to set aside their political differences and work together to speed the recovery from the storm, which killed more than 100 people, most of them in southwest Florida, according to CNN. "We are cutting through the bureaucracy," DeSantis said, calling the response a "team effort." Search and rescue efforts are ongoing.

Politico Fort Myers News-Press

2. Appeals court rules DACA illegal, but leaves protections in place

A federal appeals court panel ruled Wednesday that the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program is illegal. The three-judge panel of the conservative U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals sent the case back to a lower court to consider revisions the Biden administration made in August to preserve the program, which provides deportation protection and work authorization for hundreds of thousands of immigrants known as Dreamers who were brought to the United States as children. The Biden changes are set to take effect Oct. 31. The decision by the appellate panel, affirming a 2021 lower court ruling, leaves the program in place for those already enrolled. It also permits beneficiaries to renew their status.

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The New York Times CBS News

3. Report: Woman who says Herschel Walker paid for abortion is also mother of his child

Herschel Walker, the Republican Senate nominee in Georgia, told Fox News on Wednesday that he doesn't know the identity of the woman who told The Daily Beast he urged her to get an abortion in 2009 then reimbursed her for the procedure. Walker, who supports abortion bans with no exceptions, has called the allegation a lie meant to hurt his chances of beating Democratic incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock in a tight race. But Walker should know the woman, The Daily Beast reported later Wednesday, because "she's the mother of one of his children," born years after the abortion. The woman said she wants her name withheld to protect the privacy and safety of her family, but Walker's denial made it necessary to provide more information.

The Daily Beast

4. Attacker kills 34 at Thailand preschool

A gunman, identified by authorities as former police officer Panya Kamrab, attacked a child-care facility in northeastern Thailand on Thursday, fatally shooting or stabbing at least 34 people. At least 22 of the victims confirmed dead were children, some as young as 2. Police said the attacker fled to his home, where he killed his wife and child, then fatally shot himself. Local authorities said the attacker entered the preschool center during nap time, shooting a teacher, who was eight months pregnant, and three or four other staff members before shooting and stabbing children. The Royal Thai police said Panya Kamrab, 34, was a former police corporal who was fired after he was arrested with methamphetamine on him.

The New York Times The Guardian

5. OPEC+ agrees to oil production cut to prop up prices

OPEC+ announced Wednesday it will slash oil production by 2 million barrels a day to boost sinking crude prices. The alliance between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers led by Russia said the move was necessary because of the "uncertainty that surrounds the global economic and oil market outlooks." The Biden administration called the decision "shortsighted," saying it would "have the most negative impact on lower- and middle-income countries that are already reeling from elevated energy prices." Oil prices surged as high as $128 per barrel after Russia invaded Ukraine, but have fallen as global economic trouble reduced demand. Capital Economics predicted global oil prices will rise from around $93 a barrel to $100.

NBC News

6. North Korea continues series of missile tests

North Korea on Thursday continued a flurry of weapons tests that has prompted condemnation from the U.S., South Korea, and Japan. Pyongyang's latest missile launch, its sixth in less than two weeks, came two days after it fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile over Japan for the first time in five years. That missile flew about 2,800 miles before coming down in the Pacific, the farthest flight ever for a North Korean weapon. South Korea's military did not say how far Thursday's missile traveled. The U.S. returned an aircraft carrier to the region and conducted separate air drills with Japan and South Korea to demonstrate the allies' ability to respond to an attack. One South Korean missile malfunctioned and crashed.

The Associated Press Reuters

7. 3 scientists win Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 'click chemistry' work

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded Wednesday to Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, and K. Barry Sharpless for their work developing click chemistry and bio-orthogonal chemistry. Click chemistry creates fast and straightforward reactions where "molecular building blocks snap together quickly," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said. Sharpless, a chemistry professor at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, pioneered the concept and named it click chemistry. He and Meldal, based at the University of Copenhagen, independently discovered the key reaction of click chemistry. Bertozzi, a professor at Stanford University, was then able to apply the concept to biomolecules on cells' surfaces, which she said lets scientists do "chemistry inside human patients to make the drugs go to the right place."

CNN The New York Times

8. Nicole Mann becomes 1st Native American woman to travel to space

SpaceX launched its fifth crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday. The mission's commander, former Marine Corps pilot Nicole Mann, made history as the first Native American woman to travel to space. The liftoff from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida started her first mission since joining NASA's astronaut corps in 2013. Mann, who is from Northern California, is a member of the Wailacki tribe of the Round Valley Indian Tribes. Her flight came 20 years after John Herrington became the first Native American man to walk in space.

CNN NPR

9. Jury finds former Uber security chief guilty of covering up breach

A federal jury on Wednesday found former Uber chief security officer Joe Sullivan guilty on charges related to quietly paying hackers who breached customer and driver records, and failing to tell government regulators. Sullivan was convicted on one count of obstruction of justice for hiding the breach from the Federal Trade Commission, and one count of concealing a felony from authorities. Sullivan, a leading security expert and former cybercrimes prosecutor in San Francisco, found out that more than 57 million rider and driver accounts at the ride-hailing service had been compromised in 2016, while the FTC was already investigating a prior breach. Judge William Orrick did not set a sentencing date. Sullivan can appeal.

The Washington Post The New York Times

10. Family of cinematographer killed on 'Rust' set reaches settlement

The family of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed by a prop gun fired by actor Alec Baldwin on the set of the film Rust, has reached a settlement in its wrongful-death lawsuit against Baldwin and the movie's producers. Hutchins' husband, Matthew Hutchins, announced the agreement in a statement Wednesday, saying filming will resume in January 2023 with him serving as executive producer. "I have no interest in engaging in recriminations or attribution of blame (to the producers or Mr. Baldwin)," he said. "All of us believe Halyna's death was a terrible accident." Hutchins added he was grateful everyone had "come together to pay tribute to Halyna's final work." A New Mexico district attorney is continuing a criminal review of the case.

Los Angeles Times The Associated Press