9 AM ET: Labor market weakens, health insurance change, ‘Peaky Blinders’ vs DeSantis & more – CNN 5 Things

Hello! From CNN, I’m Jo Beck with the five things you need to know for Friday, July 7th.

The US labor market is starting to weaken, but is still pretty strong overall. The latest job numbers show 209,000 jobs were added last month, leaving the unemployment rate at 3.6%. That’s about what economists had expected. And it may affect the Federal Reserve’s decision on whether to resume raising interest rates again. The Fed paused rate hikes last month to give itself time to reassess the effects on the economy. But in recent speeches and summaries, Fed officials say they’re not done raising rates just yet, and there might be as many as two more rate increases this year.

Preliminary data from the University of Maine says yesterday worldwide temperatures climbed to 17.23 degrees Celsius, which is just above 63 Fahrenheit. That might not sound like much, but remember, that’s an average and half the planet is in winter right now. And experts say those records could be broken several times over the summer as human caused climate change linked to the use of fossil fuels continues to take a toll in the US The extreme heats will cool off in the northeast today. But in the southwest and Florida, there are warnings about fire danger and red flag alerts.

The Biden administration wants to crack down on short term health insurance plans, which says it can leave patients with hefty medical bills. The move would be part of a series of actions aimed at lowering health care costs, falling under the president’s so-called “Bidenomics” agenda, aimed at helping middle and working class Americans. CNN’s Jasmine Wright has the details.

It would limit the length of these controversial plans to three months with an option of a one month extension. Now, it would also require the plans, provide consumers with clear explanations of their benefits, which are typically less comprehensive than those with long term payment plans. The headline here, though, as you can see on that second point there, is that it’s going to roll back what president, former President Trump did while in office, which is to expand these health, be short term, short term health care plans to 12 months with allowing them to be extended for up to three months.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says he’s not endorsing Japan’s plan to release treated radioactive water into the ocean, but it is the best option.

So it’s entirely logical, entirely logical that there are concerns. Our duty is, first of all, to put in place measures to avoid harm. Number one. And number two, explain.

Rafael Grossi was speaking in Tokyo today, about Japan’s plan to release the massive build up of wastewater collected since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. A report by the IAEA found that the plant’s effect on people will be, quote, negligible. Plus, the agency and Japanese authorities insist it follows international safety standards, saying the water will first be treated and then released gradually over many years in highly diluted quantities. But as you may expect, there’s a lot of anxiety over the plan from some locals and neighboring countries about potential environmental and health concerns. Grossi admits the fears are logical, but insists the plan is safe.

The important thing is that we do the right thing. If we do the right thing, apart from perceptions, we will not harm the environment.

The Peaky Blinders aren’t happy with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. We’ll tell you why next.

The makers of Peaky Blinders have hit out at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for using footage from the series in a video targeting the LGBTQ community. A Twitter account for the Netflix series posted a message saying it didn’t approve of or give permission for footage of lead character Thomas Shelby to be used by Desantis’s campaign team. It said, quote, “We do not support nor endorse the video’s narrative and strongly disapprove of the use of the content in this manner.” Other actors seen in the clip include Leonardo DiCaprio in Wolf of Wall Street’s and Brad Pitt in Troy, intercut with footage of DeSantis and news clips relating to both his and Donald Trump’s LGBTQ+ policies. CNN has reached out to representatives for DeSantis for comment.

That’s all for now. Our next episode drops at noon Eastern.