Good morning and welcome to your weekday morning roundup of the top stories you need to know.
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What's going on today:
- "All they talked about was the hurricane." Trump complained on a radio show that the media spent 'all night' Sunday covering the devastation wrought by Hurricane Ida instead of his 'great agreement' with the Taliban."All they talked about was the hurricane," the former president told conservative radio show host Todd Starnes.
- The circle of life. The 22-year-old MAGA influencer running Rudy Giuliani's communications team has been replaced by a former Hooters spokesperson. Giuliani is under federal investigation for potential violations of foreign lobbying laws through his work in Ukraine and is being sued for defamation.
- Vaccines are preventing hospitalizations. Even with the Delta variant, the ability of COVID-19 vaccines to prevent hospitalization hasn't significantly dropped, CDC scientist says. Since the Delta variant appeared, vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization ranged from 75% to 95%, Dr. Sara Oliver said.
- Hoping there's someplace to go home to. Hurricane Ida evacuees wait in limbo to return home and survey the damage: "It's nerve-racking and frustrating." Tens of thousands of people who evacuated now find themselves unable to return home as the region deals with ongoing flooding and power outages.
- A question on all of our minds. Election fraud conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell pressed by Australian reporter: "Do you ever hear yourself and think it sounds ridiculous?" Powell faces defamation lawsuits over her baseless claims that countrywide election fraud was perpetrated to steal the presidency from Donald Trump.
- That's all for now. See you tomorrow.