10 AM ET: Pennsylvania midterms push, CDC flu warnings, Nike drops Kyrie Irving & more – CNN 5 Things

Good morning from CNN. I’m Paola Ortiz with the 5 Things you need to know for Saturday, November 5th. The midterms are right around the corner, and the extremely tight Senate race in Pennsylvania is one to watch. TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz, a Trump backed candidate, is facing Democrat John Fetterman and Oz using the final stretch before the vote to reel in undecided voters.

The reason Pennsylvania’s so important is we’re perfectly purple, right? Our neighbors are Democrats. And we’re going to win this election because we’re going to get those neighbors, conservative Democrats in particular independents, to vote with us because they don’t like what’s happening to the country.

With Election Day just three days away, former presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama will show up at rallies later today to try and lock down some votes. Obama will join President Joe Biden in Philadelphia to give Fetterman a boost as Democrats fight to hang on to control of the Senate.

Ukraine is getting another big boost from Washington as the war with Russia drags on. The U.S. Department of Defense announced plans to send $400 million in security assistance on Friday. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan says Washington’s support for Ukraine won’t waver.

The United States is going to be with Ukraine for as long as it takes in this fight. There will be no wavering, no flagging, no flinching in our support as we go forward.

The U.S. has provided over $18 billion in aid for Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion in February.

Ukraine’s military has relied on Elon Musk’s StarLink Internet service to stay online and maintain critical communications during the war, but now fears the troops could soon lose access to StarLink satellites are looming, especially after 1,300 of the devices went offline due to lack of funding, according to a person briefed on the matter. In September, CNN reported that Space X had sent a letter to the Pentagon claiming it had spent more than $100 million keeping StarLink running in Ukraine and could no longer continue to do so. The letter requested that the Department of Defense take over more of the funding. Days after the CNN report came out, Musk appeared to change course, tweeting, quote, “We’ll just keep funding Ukraine government for free.” However, a senior defense official confirmed negotiations between SpaceX and the DOD are still very much underway.

The colder months are here, and with the cool air and dropping temperatures comes flu and cold season. And the CDC is already warning of an early surge in respiratory viruses. In an alert issued by the health agency, doctors are being urged to offer flu and COVID vaccines to anyone six months and older in hope to prevent the surge. Dr. Jose Romero, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, says flu hospitalizations are higher for both young adults and kids in comparison to previous years. As the holiday season comes around, Romero stresses that vaccination is the best way to prevent the spread of respiratory infections.

We’ll be right back.

Welcome back.

Nike says it has cut ties with Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving saying, quote, “At Nike, we believe there is no place for hate speech and we condemn any form of antisemitism.” The decision comes after Irving tweeted a link to a documentary deemed anti-Semitic. Irving missed the first of at least five games on Friday after he was suspended for comments regarding the tweet. The NBA star point guard apologized to the Jewish community following the suspension, saying in an Instagram post, quote, “I had no intentions to disrespect any Jewish cultural history regarding the Holocaust or perpetuate any hate. I’m learning from this unfortunate event and hope we can find understanding between us all.”

That’s it for now. But be sure to come back at 3 p.m. Eastern for the latest news. Talk to you then.