and it was fitting that the last person to speak to her as she left the court was the great billie jean king, two icons who have fought so hard for the advancement of women both on and off the court. the tournament will now continue without one of its greatest-ever champions but nobody will ever forget serena williams, the greatest of all time. don riddell, cnn, new york. >> thanks to so much to don for that. the next hour of "new day" starts right now. ♪ good morning, everyone. welcome to your new day. i'm amara walker. >> good morning, amara. i'm boris sanchez. we're counting down yet again nasa preparing for a possible launch of the artemis i rocket into space. we're going to take you live to kennedy space center for the latest on today's launch and there may be a minor setback. and residents in jackson, mississippi, are fed up and frustrated with the on going water crisis. the latest efforts to get relief

to residents in desperate need. plus, president biden sharpening his attacks, ripping into donald trump as his midterm message takes shape. why he says maga republicans are threatening, quote, the foundations of our republic, end quote. and despite getting knocked out of the u.s. open, all eyes are on tennis star serena williams. was last night's match the last one of her career? we're going to have a look back at her lasting and incredible impact on the court. ♪ welcome to your labor day weekend. we're grateful that you're sharing it with us. it's saturday, september 3rd. great to be with you, amara. >> great to be with you. i'm not mad that i'm not on a plane off to vacation or anything. i'm just really happy to be with you, boris. >> nowhere you would rather be

than right here with us watching the skies, right? in a matter of hours nasa will try to launch its uncrewed artemis i rocket on a journey around the moon. we'll look at live pictures right now, preparations under way at kennedy space center in florida. liftoff, if all goes according to plan, is set at some point between 2:17 p.m. and 4:17 this evening. for now, the weather appears to be cooperating, but again, there could be a minor setback, amara. >> yeah. the artemis program aims to land the first woman and first person of color on the moon within the next few years and eventually send the first astronauts to mars. now, today's launch or scheduled launch, will come after the first attempt was scrubbed monday morning due to problems with an engine sensor and hydrogen leaks. both issues had been resolved, but now we're hearing that the nasa team has launched the stop -- they have stopped the

flow of liquid hydrogen to the rockets -- that core stage, the orange part of the rocket. this is according to the nasa broadcast. so apparently there has been some kind of leak that has been detected. we are keeping an eye on that, but look, there is still a backup opportunity on monday or tuesday. >> yeah. so let's go now to kennedy space center and cnn's space and defense correspondent kristin fisher life there for us this morning. kristin, a bit of a delay again. but it's possible it could only be a minor one that it would only stall them a half hour. what are you hearing on the ground there? >> reporter: yeah. so boris, you can see that the countdown clock right behind me is moving down towards the launch time. the weather looks pretty good for florida in september. but, yes, there has been a bit of a setback this morning. it is different problem to what we encountered on monday, but

similar. basically they're trying to fuel that main core stage, the big burnt orange core tank with this super cold propellant. it's a mix of very cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. and once again, we have another hydrogen leak. it is in a different place. it's now in the engine compartment. so this is different from where it was on monday. and nasa says that this is a place that has with stand four previous tests. this particular place has held before. but this time now there's a leak. so they're troubleshooting right now. they stopped the flow of liquid hydrogen. they're trying to warm it up and cool it back down in hopes they can get that seal to tighten, but what this means is they're now 30 minutes behind schedule. and the reason that is important is because you've got this narrow launch window. it's two hours, which is a decent amount of time, but now

they only have about an hour and a half. so, that's the bad news. but the good news is the weather forecast is looking very good. we've got an 80% chance of favorable weather conditions at the end of that launch window. that is so critical because you cannot have even the slightest bit of precipitation in the air for a launch like this. listen to the artemis i launch weather officer when i asked her about precipitation just yesterday. how much rain is acceptable? >> no rain is acceptable to fly through for artemis. so if there's one drop out there that's going to fall on that rocket, i'm going to give you a no-go for that. >> reporter: no rain is acceptable. not a single drop, boris and amara. so now we just kind of wait and see if nasa can troubleshoot through this problem. we'll let you know if we get any updates from nasa. but as of now, the countdown continues. we just don't know for how long.

boris and amara? >> keeping our funingers crosse. that's all you can do. let's dig deeper on the chance for rain and potentially any other weather in that area with cnn meteorologist britly ritz at the cnn weather center. are we going to see a single drop of rain, britly? >> well, we have scattered showers out there into the atlantic, but the easterly wind is key. if we do get an easterly wind it can push that rain further inland which would benefit for us which is why we have that 20% chance of weather violation later on into the launch. as kristin fisher mentioned, we have a better chance of making that happen. some primary concerns not just rain but cumulus clouds. it's just the cumulus clouds the cumulus nimbus cloud. the friction from liftoff from the rocket can actually trigger its own lightning within ten miles of cape canaveral, we have

that lightning rule. within 30 minutes, the cloud rule ten miles as well, 4,500 feet. that's ceiling. so there are the showers off into the atlantic, trying to push toward our coastline. there's a good chance we may have a few showers, but where they line up, that's the key. that's the big question. so with that southeast wind, we have a better chance of hitting a shower here along the cape. but with more of an easterly wind, which it's forecast to switch on over as it heats up, as the sea breeze kicks in, that easterly wind can push that rain further inland. and that's what we're expected to see around the time of liftoff within that two-hour window. there's future radar minute by minute seeing the showers focussed inland, but within that ten-mile spread we'll have to keep an eye on this for you. >> thanks so much for keeping a close eye on that. let's bring in leroy choi, retired nasa astronaut. you're hearing as we are about this delay, the hydrogen leak

again but in a different place. what do you make of it? >> that brings back shutters from when i first joined nasa several decades ago we had a rash of hydrogen leaks on space shuttle, and it was just bedevilling and we finally did solve those problems. so this is, yeah, obviously of concern. hopefully the team will be able to get that seal to go ahead and resume tanking and see a launch this morning, but liquid hydrogen is probably the trickiest fluid to try to contain. that's why it's so challenging when you use liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, but again it's the most efficient fuel as well, especially when you're coupliin it with the rocket boosters. my understanding is the team will go ahead and manually start tanking again, hoping that they'll as part of their troubleshooting plan to hopefully go ahead and be able

to solve this problem. >> so is that 30-minute pause enough time to ensure that the leak has been fixed? >> well, they're thinking, okay, let's let it warm up a little bit, let the sealing material expand and then we'll go ahead and start tanking again and see how it goes. you know, because there's very little they can do now with the vehicle partially fueled, you know, this is -- they're figuring out the best plan possible, and i think this is it. >> leroy, the scrub the other day also had to do with a faulty fuel sensor and apparently nasa's plan is partly to just ignore the sensor and move forward. did that surprise you at all? >> well, no, because at the moment in realtime they didn't have enough information or analysis to figure out what exactly was going on. was it a bad sensor? was there no liquid hydrogen flowing through that core

engine. and so afterwards they looked at all the data they had and the engineers took their time over the course of many hours and a couple of days and decided based on all the evidence, all the data, from all the different sensors that, okay, looks like liquid hydrogen was flowing through that stage and engine number 3 and was, in fact, a faulty sensor. they can mask that sensor to keep it from triggering an alarm or shutdown, this is not something they would do for a launch involving astronauts on board. they may if they were confident enough, but they're at least confident enough in the flight test to say we can mask the sensor and proceed assuming the flows are normal. >> like you were saying, leroy, you have been through this. you understand and emphasize with the shutters that people may experience when they have to deal with these setbacks. it's par for the course, right? there's millions of parts and factors that have to line up perfectly for there to be a launch, so let's move on and say

okay, let's just be hopeful it's going to work out some day. what are you most excited about once artemis i is up in the air? are you excited about the moon exploration making habitat there? are you excited about the mars component? what are you looking forward to the most? >> well, ultimately, of course, it would be wonderful to see humans on mars. that would be outstanding and fantastic. the shorter term goal is to humans back to the moon. way back when when i joined nasa when i was interviewing to join nasa way back in 1989 and president bush xli had the exploration program that would have seen us or projected to put us on mars in 2019 with a stop at the moon seems so far away and now that date has passed. in the medium term, getting humans back to the moon. it's been nearly 50 years since

the last time we put humans on the moon. that would be really fantastic to see. so i'm hopeful this mission goes off well and the rocket and the spacecraft perform. and also, you know, this is an exciting time, too, because we have these commercial companies doing some pretty astounding things as well. and so i think we're going to enter a few exciting years ahead. >> there's enormous geopolitical implications to this launch and nasa's immediate future. bill nelson was on cnn yesterday and asked about a space race with china. here is what he shared with us. >> yeah. there's a space race. >> who is winning? >> well, let's see. this is the first step. and this is the largest, most powerful rocket ever. >> leroy, why is it so important for the united states to lead in space? >> i think this is something

that we've wanted to do and have done since the 1960s, the very beginning of the space program. the russians, the soviets got off to an early start by sending the first human into space and making a number of firsts including the first woman? space and the first space walk, but then the focus became, okay who is going to land on the moon first and that's why there was such urgency during the 1960s. it was almost a war footing or war mentality, you know, this is all or nothing. we have to win this. then after we did land first on the moon, we kind of declared victory and been the leaders in human space flight ever since. so now we've got other players, most notably china, they have been launching astronauts into space since 2003. they're nearly finished building their own space station and have demonstrated they can fly long duration flights, perform research in space, resupply that station, bring astronauts up and down on a regular schedule and they have made no secret they intend to land their astronauts

on the moon sometime in the 2030s. so i guess in a sense there's a bit of a race, but i wouldn't say it's the urgency of the cold war back in the '60s when it was literally seen as life and death by i would say actually most of the people in the u.s. and probably in the soviet union as well. >> fascinating stuff, leroy. really good to see you. thanks for joining us this morning. leroy choi. >> my pleasure. good to be with you. and head over to cnn.com for an interactive look at this historic launch. you can see the launch by the numbers from the miles the capsule will travel to temperatures it will have to endure. we'll have continuing coverage throughout the day as we count down to liftoff. still to come here this hour, mississippi's capital is still without water after nearly a week. now more than 150,000 residents are forced to rely on bottled water as a timeline to get the

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there. >> reporter: good morning, amara and boris. residents in jackson are waking up to day six of this water crisis with really no end in sight. there's no timeline on when this two-fold problem may be solved. so one issue is the low water pressure. that happened after recent flooding that happened just a about a week ago. the other problem has been around for quite some time and that is the water quality. there's been a boil water order since the end of july. there's a two-fold problem. even if you're able to get water to come out of your faucet, you can't drink that water. it's so unsafe. you need to boil it. that's why we're outside of the one of the state's largest distribution sites here at the state fairgrounds in jackson, mississippi. it opens up in two hours. no one is out right now. we see workers getting ready for what we anticipate another day of long lines. we heard from the governor of mississippi, tate reeves says they handed out some 2.8 million bottles of water so far, and

they are expecting another 36 truckloads to come through today to drop off more water. but the mayor of jackson is tempering expectations saying even if we get some of the problems at this water treatment plant fixed, other problems may pop up. take a listen. >> i do want to forewarn you another issue we may experience as they're able to increase the pressure at the plant to levels that it has not seen in many years, the challenge then becomes whether we have pipes that rupture across the city. we know that we have brittle pipes. we have aged pipes just as our water treatment facilities are aged. and so that's a challenge that we're going to have to be on the ground and dealing with as time persists. >> reporter: so that water treatment plant here that services the entire city of jackson, 150,000 plus residents here is so old and crumbling that two pumps failed.

well, those pumps are out being custom made by a machinimachini. custom made because they're o old and outdated there's nowhere to go to get a new one or replace parts so they have to be remade from scratch. you heard the mayor talk about the pipes that are brittle. they are expecting more leaks that could happen. there was an ammonia leak happening at the facility just yesterday, just another one of those many problems they're dealing with here in jackson and that boil water advisory continues, low water pressure continues across the city. boris, amara? >> i don't know that many people are boiling their water, period. i spoke to several residents who said, listen, when i do have water, what comes out is brown, tinged color water. would you boil that water? i don't think a lot of people would want to use that to make coffee or cook with. it's just an awful, inhumane situation. nadia romero, thank you. the biden administration requests billions from congress

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so the biden administration is focussing on four major challenges they say need -- they say they need more funding from congress. >> they're asking for billions of dollars to support spending related to ukraine, covid-19, monkeypox and natural disaster response. let's get you out to the white house now and cnn's kevin liptak live there for us. kevin, walk us through exactly what's in this request. >> reporter: this is a $47 billion request from the white house, boris. it does set up this potential showdown on capitol hill as lawmakers face an end of the month deadline to fund the government, september 30th is when those funds run out.

and what the white house says is that once these emergency requests inclauded whatever the congress can pass. what's included? $13.7 billion for ukraine for military assistance, economic assistance. the white house says that three quarters of the funding that has already been passed by congress has already been committed or dis dispersed. that needs to get passed through. there's also 6.5 billion for natural disasters, including flooding that was in kentucky earlier this month. so the white house is pretty confident that those two items will make it through. what could prove a little more controversial is this money for public health. that is really what is the bulk of this request. it includes $22.4 billion for covid-19 response, including for vaccines, for treatments to refund programs where the money has run out, that includes that free testing program where you could go on the internet, sign up for free tests and it would

be delivered through the postal service, that program has all but run out of money. the white house is winding it down. so this would sort of restart that program. it also includes $4.5 billion for monkeypox, including funding for vaccines for monkeypox that had been in short supply over the last several weeks. now that could prove more controversial, lawmakers, particularly republicans have been resistant in providing more funding for covid-19 after that $5 trillion that has already been allocated to combat the pandemic. now, this all come to a head as lawmakers return to washington over the next weeks as they face this end of the month deadline to fund the government or face a potential government shutdown. boris and amara? >> critical battles ahead on the doorstep of the midterm elections we should note. thank you so much, kevin. let's dig deeper with cnn political analyst and pbs news

hour white house correspondent laura lopez. we're grateful to have you. we're ten weeks out before midterms. i want to ask you about the messaging from the white house but want to get your notes on this $47 billion request first that kevin was just outlining. what are the odds the white house gets what they want. >> there's not much time left in the legislative calendar. it will be a mad rush, especially since as we know a lot of lawmakers are preparing to run for re-election. so, getting everything on their list i'm a little skeptical of, but it's definitely something they'll be pushing for in the final days of the the legislative calendar. >> so president biden gave what amounts to a call to action for voters this week in his speech. let's listen to a chunk of it. >> donald trump and the maga republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our

republic. they promote authoritarian leaders and fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law to the very soul of this country. >> trump obviously isn't on the ballot in november, but biden is putting him front and center. what do you make of this approach from the white house? >> this is something that president biden has talked about since he ran for the presidency and launched in 2019 going into 2020. he ran because of charlottesville and saw neo-nazis marching there. now, he didn't focus on the threats to democracy as much in recent months. and some of the historians i spoke to that talk to him in the lead-up to this speech said that they think that because of all of his major legislative priorities getting done in congress, that he was freed up to take this front on.

we hadn't heard from him on the issues of threats to democracy since january of this year when he gave speeches in atlanta and he gave speech on the anniversary of the january 6th insurrection. now biden, the big shift is that he's being very direct about what he's diagnosing as semifascism, authoritarian factions within the republican party, and he is saying this poses the greatest threat to the republic and a lot of the historians i have talked to and scholars in authoritarianism, in extremism and in fascist governments say that they have been waiting for the president to make a speech like this because they see these strains within the republican party that is still being dominated by former president trump. >> we've seen democrats try this sort of thing before. i remember hillary clinton in 2016 talking about a basket of deplorables. that ultimately galvanized republican support of donald trump and now house minority

leader kevin mccarthy is accusing biden of vilifying millions of americans. do you think this could ultimately backfire and bring republicans together? >> that's certainly what republicans are hoping for and what former president donald trump is hoping will happen which is why we saw in the past week in response to the mar-a-lago search and as more developments have come out of that by the fbi that trump got on his social media site, truth social, and posted countless times about he should be declared the winner of the 2020 election, and if not there should immediately be a new election. the one thing is that in 2020 that, you know, claims of potential election rigging and what trump ran on backfired on him because a number of swing voters and independents decided they wanted the country to go in a different direction. so, we saw in biden's speech that he tried to reach those

moderate republicans. and he tried to distinguish and make very clear that not all republicans are a part of what he sees as this extreme wing and that he hopes that they join democrats, like congresswoman liz cheney has in trying to purge the country of what they see that could very well damage democracy. >> laura barron lopez, appreciate your perspective as always. we have to leave the conversation there. >> thank you. it's the unbelievable true story of the man who took on putin and lived to expose the truth. here is a look at the sun dance award-winning cnn film navalny which airs tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. on cnn. ♪ [ phone ringing ] >> hello. [speaking non-english]

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♪ more than 12 million people are expected to fly over the labor day weekend as the unofficial end of the summer -- at the unofficial end of the summer marred by frustrations over flight delays and cancellations. as of this morning, nearly 100 domestic flights have been cancelled and another 500 delayed. this comes as airlines roll out changes to help passengers when things don't go quite as planned. joining me now is charles lioca president of travelers united, a advocacy group. great to have you, charles.

thank you so much for joining us this morning. so as we were saying, airlines are tweaking plans to offer meals and hotels if flights are cancelled or delayed. so what exactly is changing? what are the new protocols for these airlines that we should know about? >> well, the new protocols basically are that they're now starting to make more clear what they've actually doing for the consumer. and in the past, there's a difference between what we call a contract of carriage, which is the contract that everybody signs with an airline, which tells them that they are going to get from point a to point b. >> uh-huh. >> but then you've got what they call the customer service plan, which tells them what's going to happen to you if you are delayed during your trip. and the customer service plan is not a legal document. so that's the big -- that's the play that we're working with right now. and what the airlines are doing is they're now tweaking their customer service plans to let

people know what they can expect if their flights are delayed. and that's not exactly according to the law, but it's what the airlines right now are saying they're going to do. >> so what kind of tweaks are we seeing when it comes to, you know, specific airlines with a flight cancellation, because if anyone traveled over the summer, i imagine you dealt with one major delay or cancellation, like i did. >> right. and like i did. >> right. >> and so, we're all placing a -- the changes they're putting in right now, which are small wins for the consumers, are we get a meal if the flight is going to be more than three hours late. and overnight if the flight is going to be overnight and it's going to be late throughout -- until the next morning, then you could also get a hotel reservation. and the airlines are being sort of cagey about it, if they're available, if the flight is

significantly late and so on. so we're still in that -- in the land of in between. there's no real law that says that the airlines must provide food and must provide accommodations. however, now they're going to at least so they're going to try to give it to you. that becomes a real problem when they've got a lot of people who are all delayed at the same time. >> exactly. how are they going to meet all that demand. i was reading in united airlines case, offering meal vouchers flights delayed to three hours versus four hours. a meal voucher when they get on the next flight or at the airport? >> well, the meal vouchers are normally at the airport and normally around $25 or 20 bucks. you know what you can buy at the airport for 20 dollars, get a snickers bar. >> or a bottle of water for 20 bucks. >> right. >> so what's in it for these airlines to make these really, i guess, surface changes?

i know that the transportation secretary pete buttigieg sent a letter to airlines earlier this month asking them to re-examine their customer service, but there was also this letter signed by 38 attorneys general where they were asking congress to pass a law that would basically, you know, force or put a lot of pressure on these airlines. is that what's kind of putting a fire under all this? >> well, it's a combination of things. number one, we've got the problem right now. we've got the labor day flight crush, which is coming up. and at the same time, d.o.t. has now come up with a dash board where they have xs and check marks. all the airlines want to have as many check marks as they can. so the places which were easiest for them to get a lot of check marks is to say, oh, we'll give you food if you ask for it. we'll give you an accommodation if you ask for it. and so on and give you accommodations if they're

available. if they're not available, they give you, ta-da, airline flight credits which nobody really wants these days. all they want to do is get from point a to point b. so that's one whole thing. now we're talking about the attorneys general, that's something where the local attorneys at the state a.g.s don't really have any power because the entire -- we'll say the entire airline system is set up as a federal system and it goes across state lines. that's been a real problem for the attorneys general. now we're starting to push for them to be able to at least enforce the airlines rules which are national rules that they can now be forced locally. and that's what we're trying to get done. travelers united has been the leader -- has been the real leader in this kind of action. >> yeah. we have to leave it there, charles le-ocha because we're out of time. i have to say we're grateful for

you this morning and what you and your organization does. so thank you for that. appreciate your time. >> okay. thank you very much. she's arguably one of the greatest athletes of all time. and last night the world watched as serena williams played in what was probably her last tennis match. hear her emotional farewell next. ♪ no wayyyy. no waaayyy! no way! [phone ringiging] hm. no way!! no way! priceleline. every trip is a big deal.

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♪ jane fonda has been diagnosed with nonhodge kins lymphoma. the legendary actress and activist posted the news on instagram adding she is now undergoing chemotherapy. >> chloe melas is joining us with more. good morning. what else do we know? >> reporter: good morning. jane fonda's announcement caught everyone by surprise on friday.

she's 84 years old. she is more active than ever. she is outspoken when it comes to politics and climate change and her activism, like you all have said, she's not just an actress, she's an activist. she has so many projects in the works. again, very surprising news and she took this moment to say in her lengthy message on instagram that she is appreciative to have healthcare, to be able to be dealing with the chemotherapy quite well, she says. she as six months of chemotherapy she has already begun and has a very high survival rate and really is focussing on the midterms and focussing on her activism and making the environment a better place for all of us. that was a poignant part of her message that she used this as a teachable moment. some people from hollywood took to social media. i mean, that instagram post is flooded with comments, including her former costar and long-time friend diane keaton from their

movie "book club" some of you may have seen, she says we love you, jane. you're my hero. you are a warrior. all of my life i have been in awe that all you do. i will continue to admire the crusader you have always been and always will be. she has a movie, jane fonda, premiering at the toronto film festival called "moving on." she is not stopping. this won't slow her down. >> absolutely not. but yeah, i was also taken by surprise going through instagram and then seeing that post and i had to do a double take to actually believe that. we wish her the best. chloe melas, thank you so much. >> thank you. well, tennis fans giving a huge sendoff to serena williams last night as the superstar played what could be her final match at the u.s. open. >> cnn's carolyn manno was at the match and joins us for this morning's bleacher report. an emotional farewell from serena on the court, potentially her farewell. >> reporter: yeah. i think it is going to be, you

know, her last grand slam, even though she left the door open. athletes can't play forever. we know this. as much as we might want them to. and she's going to be remembered for being so gritty and so tough and just inspiring us all. to fight the way that she did, what better way to go out than that. she's nearly 41 years of age. so to play the way she did against a player 11 yoears her junior is just remarkable and the crowd was so loud, the loudest i have heard this entire week by far. they were trying to do everything they could to will her to another win. she lost the first set to the australian, but she dug so deep like she has done so many times in her career. she wasn't going down without a fight. she played some of the best points that she has played in the tournament to get to that second set and this incredible tiebreak. even when she was struggling in the third set, she was never d down and out. she staved off five match points before she finally fell in this

match. it was 3:05. it was the longest match of her entire career. and she did get emotional when thanking her family afterwards. >> all started with my parents. and they deserve everything. so, i'm really grateful for them. oh my god. these are happy tears, i guess. i don't know. and i wouldn't be serena if there wasn't venus, so thank you, venus. she's the only reason serena williams ever existed. >> reporter: serena tributes pouring in from everybody. coco gauff, thank you. it's because of you i believe in this dream. the impact you had on me goes

beyond any words. thank you, thank you, thank you, goat. >> serena williams, you're literally on and off the court. thank you for inspiring all of us to pursue our dreams. i love you, little sis. it's also the first saturday of college football, guys. the big game in columbus, number two ohio state hosting number five notre dame. some big news in college football, the college football playoff is getting set to expand as well. there will now be 12 teams in the playoff instead of four beginning in 2026 but could begin as early as 2024. back to this moment here, boris and amara, that sound from serena was so emotional and vulnerable and honest. and we don't get to hear from her like that very often. but i think she was recognizing the moment and what that meant on the court to truly say good-bye. we might see her again. you just never know with the greatest of all time. >> 20-plus years of dominance just unrivalled in her sport and across sports.

carolyn manno, thank you so much. we'll be right back. ♪

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♪ good morning, everyone. it is saturday, september 3rd. i'm amara walker. >> great to be with you, amara. i'm boris sanchez. live in the cnn "newsroom," we're grateful to be a part of your labor day weekend. this morning, we are closely